


The Road Forgotten

by KaelsMiscellany



Series: A Hush Sublime [4]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Dreams, F/M, Fallen Angel Nathan, Family Drama, Multi, Mystery, Werewolves, what even is going on y'all?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-09-02 16:25:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 64,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8674456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaelsMiscellany/pseuds/KaelsMiscellany
Summary: William might be dead, but that doesn't mean Haven's problems are over.When the prodigal son returns home what chaos will he bring with him?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We're back in the OT3 tag everyone! *throws confetti* It feels so good to be back.
> 
> If you haven't already I'd highly recommend you read [Tear the Sun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8301668/chapters/19012055) if you haven't already, reading [Our Bones Keep Looking Back](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8355664/chapters/19140373) isn't as necessary, but I'd still rec it *g*.
> 
> Title comes from "The President" by Snow Patrol.
> 
> Now onto the fic!

While Audrey appreciates how big their ‘family’ has grown since the year started sometimes it’s nice to just be with Nathan and Duke, with little to no distractions.

There is a distraction today, but it’s a good one. Duke’s finally revealing his new menu for the Gull—which he’s kept secret even from them, the horrible man—just in time for Founder’s Day tomorrow, and while they’re not alone at the restaurant it feels like they are, and that’s enough for right now.

She and Nathan sit at the bar, all the tables already taken, but it’s kind of better that way, what with Duke behind the bar and being his usual charming self. Her legs swing as she looks over the nice new menu, so far she’s impressed—moreso since he insisted on doing it on his own. And honestly she doesn’t know what to pick.

Next to her Nathan’s reading the menu with a single minded focus that’s kind of adorable, it brings a fond smile to her face. Letting herself sneak in the occasional glance as she finds herself torn between the pulled pork and ‘hearty’ BLT.

But then Nathan starts sputtering and when she looks he’s cherry red. “What?” Has he finally noticed the halo burger? Maybe she and Duke should have bet on it.

He turns the menu to her—of course he’s looking at the breakfast foods even though it’s lunch—and points.

 _The best damn pancakes on this here planet Earth. Enjoy a stack slathered in butter and drenched in maple syrup. Your mouth will be the happiest it’s ever been._  Well it’s a little raunchy, but really that’s to be expected with Duke. But on an impulse she actually looks at the item name, because honestly Nathan should be used to Duke’s Duke-ness by now.

 _The Audrey_.

“Duke Evander Crocker you did not.” She’s not sure who’s more surprised Nathan for the outburst, or Duke for the name thing.

Still he sidles up to them, his charming grin firmly in place. “And what are you accusing me of this time?”

“Being horrible,” Nathan finally manages to speak.

Duke rolls his eyes. “Now that’s nothing new Nate, and anyways, you love it.”

Before Nathan can try and argue, and oh he will because they still seemed to enjoy sniping at each other from time to time—but at least this time it more often than not just turned to friendly teasing—Audrey jumps in. “You named a menu item after me,” it doesn’t quite come out as accusatory as she’d like.

“So, I can totally do that. They’re amazing by the way you should totally try them. I mean I’ve got something ‘named’ after Nathan, it only felt fair to have something for you too,” damnit, she hates it when he’s charming, because everything he says makes too much sense. At least Duke usually doesn’t use it on them.

“You named something after me?” Nathan sounds confused and surprised.

“You’re adorable,” Duke reaches over the counter and pats Nathan’s cheek, who quickly bats his hand out of the way and she should probably stop this before they start to give the patrons a show they’ll probably later regret.

In retaliation for Duke’s charmingness Audrey pouts at him. “You could have told me,” it certainly would have been nice to have _some_ sort of preparation.

“I wanted it to be a surprise, now come on,” he bounces a little like an anxious kid. “Order something, I want to know what you think.”

She and Nathan shake a look and matching sighs. Only Duke, then again they love him so it’s not exactly something new to them. “You know,” Audrey says lightly. “You could just _make_ this stuff for us at home, we’d definitely still enjoy it.” Maybe even moreso. “And fine, I’ll have the pulled pork.”

This time Duke leans over the whole counter, at the other end of the bar Nora rolls her eyes, and gives her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best.”

Next to her Nathan fidgets a little and while his blush’s lessened it hasn’t gone completely away. “I’ll have the…” His ears darken. “The Audrey.”

Now _she’s_ blushing slightly too, and Duke scampers away to the kitchen before she can accuse him of naming pancakes after her just to make Nathan blush. In retaliation of sorts, and to comfort Nathan, she scoots her chair closer to him, close enough their thighs are touching, not that he’d be able to tell. She wraps her arms around his and leans her head on his shoulder; happy he’s wearing a t-shirt. “If it really bothers you I’m sure Duke’ll change it.” Even if it came with some good-natured teasing about not wanting to ‘eat’ Audrey.

“I,” Nathan sighs and slumps into her sightly. “It just caught me off guard, and it’s weird.”

“Think about how I feel. People will be ordering me left and right knowing how good Duke’s food is.” But it’s also kind of sweet in it’s own way. Duke spending all that time and effort making something for the Gull and then naming it after her.

Nathan gives a soft huff of laughter, his head turning to lay a brief kiss on the top of her head. “But seriously, there’s something on the menu named after me?” Duke’s right, Nathan really is adorable.

Picking up a menu from behind the bar she holds it out to Nathan, “not in name, but yeah. And I’d say don’t think _too_ hard about it, but since it’s slipped you by for who knows how long you might need some hints,” at least her loving jibes only receive minor sputtering from Nathan.

“Food,” Duke says cheerily as he returns to the bar—and he either made their food himself or put a rush on it—hands full of plates. Her pulled pork looks amazing, and Nathan’s pancakes, while simple, also look delicious. “Why is Nathan hiding behind a menu? Can he not stop blushing?”

Audrey rolls her eyes. “He’s intent on finding out what you named after him,” she answers. It seems not even pancakes can sway him from that, a first if there ever was one. She leaves him to it however and dives into her own food. After a few bites she feels like she might slide off her seat into a pile of goo. “Duke I might have to chain you to the kitchen and force you to make this every day,” it’s fucking _amazing_.

“Halo burger? Seriously Duke? You know angels don’t have halos.” Nathan sounds exasperated. But Duke doesn’t have to bother with a reply, what with Nathan discovering his pancakes and diving straight in.

Then again she’s not sure Duke _can_ talk, what with him just standing in front of them on the other side of the bar, beaming like a loon. And really how can he throw stones about Nathan’s adorableness with a face like that?

“You’re the worst,” Nathan manages to get out between bites. “How did you manage to make your pancakes _better_?”

Audrey tries to steal Nathan’s fork but he pulls it, and his plate, away from her quickly. “Mine.”

“You’re fault,” she says to Duke cheerily.

“Definitely, no regrets,” it’s hard to be mad when he’s got a right to be smug. “But you should share Nate,” Duke cajoles. “I’m sure Audrey wouldn’t mind you helping her clean up any syrup that drips.” Yep, Duke’s the worst.

Nathan’s eyes dilate slightly. “Might I remind you that even if we’re off duty we’re still cops and this is a public place?” Audrey feels she has to say it, just so there’s no misunderstandings. Although most of Haven’s likely to take their indecency with bemused fondness rather than anything close to resembling outrage.

“Oh I know, but it’ll be worth it,” Duke’s tone is slightly huskier. And here she’d thought Nathan was the only voyeur of the three of them.

“Here,” now Nathan’s gotten on the husky voice train and is offering her a forkful of pancakes, looking like he might be under some sort of spell—distinctly possible, but unlikely—and Christ, they’re going to seduce her with _pancakes_ and it’s supremely unfair.

If she had better self-control than maybe she could have said no, but as it stands she opens her mouth, waiting patiently for Nathan to slide the fork in. When he does she closes her lips around it, lips quirking as she watches Nathan’s eyes dilate even more—to be fair she’s planning on dragging them up to her apartment soon now.

And hell, she hasn’t even started chewing and already these pancakes are amazing—Duke is clearly some sort of cooking god. Her eyes slide shut as she begins to eat, doing her best to keep in the blissful sounds she wants to make.

As she swallows she opens her eyes again, to see Nathan and Duke staring at her avidly. With ease she slides off her chair. “My apartment, now.” With more confidence than usual she sashays her way out of the Gull, grinning when she hears a clatter and the sounds of scrambling feet.

-

Jennifer stares at her reflection in the mirror, then the worn and sunbleached photo in her hands, than her reflection again. When she’d decided on this course of action last month she hadn’t realized how eerie it would be to look at her own reflection and see her mother staring back.

But that was her own choice, to do Founders Day as her mother. Duke hadn’t even batted an eyelash when she’d asked for some of Maggie’s old clothes and some photos.

She isn’t second guessing herself, but she’s certain she’s going to get more than a few stunned looks from people who might have memories of her mother. Not that that isn’t part of the point, Jennifer will admit she does love sowing a bit of chaos every once in a while, and really, this is pretty harmless.

A knock on the door pulls her away from her inspection and putting the photo down she jogs to the door, enjoying the sound of the beads on her dress clicking together. When she opens the door she smiles. “Dwight!” She throws herself at him, she’s gotten good at knowing the right amount of height she needs to get her arms around his neck for a kiss in the past few months.

His own arms wrap around her so she doesn’t fall, and she’s probably going to have to reapply her lipstick but she doesn’t exactly care.

Lizzie’s exaggerated “bleh!” breaks them up, the both of them smiling and biting back laughter at her antics. The lipstick on his mouth makes Dwight look ridiculous and ruins the ‘fierce’ look he’d probably been going for considering the outfit.

But Jennifer likes to think that’s what she’s here for. “You’ve ah, got something on your face,” she teases with a broad smile.

Dwight sets her down and blushes, next to him Lizzie giggles. While her outfit isn’t as warrior-ish as her dad’s it still has a serious feel to it that the giggling ruins. Together she’s willing to bet they stand out amongst the rest of the costumes in Haven, a fact she doesn’t mind at all. “Here I’ll get you a wipe,” she finally says taking pity on him.

“Thank,” he responds drolly as he follows her towards the bathroom. She hands him one of her makeup removing wipes and reapplies her lipstick while he cleans himself up. “You look amazing by the way.” She sees his blue eyes darken in the mirror and now she’s the one blushing.

“You do too, although not what I expected.” To be fair she should have. They’re _berserkers_ , of course they’d dress up in what’s probably a ‘traditional’ Norse style.

His teeth flash in a grin as he takes off the last of her lipstick. “We’ll you’ll see it again next year, so not exactly the most exciting of costumes really. Although I find myself vaguely dreading the day Lizzie starts to hate hers and demand something different.”

Jennifer pat’s Dwight’s bare arm. “I’m sure you’ll survive, and she’s got me to complain at now at least.”

“Daaaadd, Jennnyy, come on! We’re missing all the fun stuff.” The both of them share a look at Lizzie’s outburst and laugh.

-

Nathan thinks Audrey looks stunning in her dress. He knows she’s not usually one for them, or at least not one for dresses like _this_. But he finds himself pleased that she let herself be convinced to wear it. Even if she looks vaguely awkward in it.

Reaching out he takes her hands in his, glad she’s not wearing gloves. “You look fine.” She probably doesn’t need the reassurance, but he’ll give it anyways.

Fondly she rolls her eyes. “I know,” she agrees. “Still weird.” She blows a few loose hairs out of her face. Duke had helped her pin it up this morning, and Nathan finds his fingers itch to undo it all, to see her hair tumble free. Even if it wouldn’t exactly be era appropriate. He finds one of his hands rising up to smooth them back and feels a small burst of happiness when she smiles at him.

Despite her thinking it weird, there’s a part of him that’s pleased that they all sort of match, his outfit with Duke’s uniform, and now Audrey’s Regency dress. They’ll probably make quite a trio walking around together and he finds that doesn’t fluster him as much as it used to.

“Come on, we need to be heading in.” She lightly tugs on her hands as she takes a few steps towards her front door.

“Isn’t that my line,” Nathan finds himself teasing, mock wincing when she slips her hands out of his to slap his upper arm—even if it is all for show. Despite his ‘outrage’ he offers up the crook of his arm. “M’lady?”

She laughs, but takes his arm. “Why thank you good sir.” It is vaguely disconcerting to hear her talk like that for some reason, possibly because some version of her really did experience the era, absently he finds himself curious as to what that ‘her’ might have been like. A snort leave Audrey a few seconds later, distracting him.

“What?” He finds himself asking as he leads them down the stairs to the parking lot of the Gull.

“Elizabeth Bennet, detective.” Is all she says in response. But that’s all she needs to.

His mind throwing out images as he climbs into the driver's seat. Most of them are ridiculous though and he finds himself sniggering. “How much will Duke pout if we’re late?”

It earns him an arched eyebrow. “What have you got in mind Wuornos?” She teases, sidling up to him and sliding a hand over his thigh. His eyes are locked on her hand, creeping ever closer to his cock, and well, his breeches being period correct don’t hide much. “I think if we sent him pictures he wouldn’t be so mad.”

Nathan can’t feel it, but he knows he’s blushing. With the images his mind conjured at her words it would be impossible not too. Audrey pulling out her phone—an ‘adventure’ in and of itself to find it—moving over to straddle him her skirts hiking up in the process. The occasional ‘click’ as she took pictures while she did whatever she wanted to him—he’d let her, even with the risk hey might get caught so out in the open.

“Pictures?” It doesn’t quite come out a squeak at least, and he finally tears his gaze away from her hand to look at her face, she’s grinning like she’s just discovered her new favorite hobby.

“I mean we’d have to be choosy on how we take them, but I think it would be fun. I’m certain it would brighten Duke’s day.” Her words aren’t exactly helping him at the moment.

Because he knows if he keeps staring at her he’ll say yes he tears his gaze away to look out the windshield, his knuckles are white as they grip the steering wheel tightly. “Not right now?” But oh, he could see them doing it later, maybe with Duke taking the pictures, or Audrey while he and Duke got hot and heavy. He was sure Duke still had an old Polaroid camera stashed away somewhere.

Audrey makes a sound he’s long since grown familiar with and it helps ease things, at least a little, he risks a glance down to see her hand’s left him, all of her back on her side of the bench seat. “Alright. But I’m still totally telling Duke.” He didn’t real doubt that, and Duke’s expression when she did tell him would be worth capturing in a picture itself. “Now come on. We really should go.”

He snorts, but finds himself unwilling to get into the fact that _she_ was the one trying to delay them. It’s just another part of her after all, and one he does enjoy most of the time. With more care than usual he goes through the motions of starting the Bronco, hoping by the time they get downtown he’s erection will at least have died down.

-

Duke does feel a little strange to already be wearing his captain’s uniform hours before he’s to do his performance, but he’s also thinking it might be high time to just retire his zoot suit; also he’ll admit he’s doing it so he at least doesn’t seem odd next to Nathan and Audrey.

But if that feels weird then what’s even weirder is the fact that he’s already wandering Founder’s Park, even though part of his brain is shouting at him that he should still be at the Gull. Carla and Nora have it well in hand however, and he could do with a little less work-related stress in his life honestly. So he’s going to enjoy the damn sun and the atmosphere around him, and try not to act too nervous while he waits for Audrey and Nathan.

Already a losing battle, not that’s he’s going to admit that to himself at the moment. Still he throws himself onto a bench and gives a friendly waves to people who wave at him; Haven seems to have outdone herself today, the sun is warm and shining down, but there’s a slight breeze from the ocean providing a nice touch of coolness, flowers are everywhere, almost as eye catching as the Havenites in their costumes. All in all a successful Founders Day.

“Why hello there stranger, mind if I join you?”

Duke looks up to see Claire grinning down at him, and he rolls his eyes fondly. “Go right ahead, how’ve you been?” It _has_ been a while since they last saw each other, Claire busy with her own work and the three of them doing their jobs _and_ going to bi-weekly town meetings—Duke can’t really remember the last time he felt so responsible.

“Doing alright, Kat’s birthday shopping for me so I had to make myself scarce. And you’re changing up things I see.” She arches a questioning eyebrow.

“Oh no,” he wags a finger at her. “You’re not going to try and psychoanalyze me just because I decided to wear different clothes than expected. Nope.” He enjoys Claire’s company, but there’s definitely a line, a shrink he doesn’t need.

She huffs and gives him a look. “Oh please, like I need to bring that headache into my life,” he’s pretty sure she just stuck her tongue out at him, however briefly. “I _can_ be just curious.”

“Right, that’s why Kat needs to remind you to stop working. But if you really must know I wanted to match better,” with who really doesn’t need to be said. And because he can he sticks his own tongue out briefly in retaliation.

Claire gets a knowing look in her eye, but before Duke can try to distract her from whatever line of thinking she’s just jumped on a scent tickles his nose, it’s one he’d smelled a day or so ago, and _where_ does he know it from? If he keeps smelling it that’s seriously going to bug him.

“Duke?” Claire draws him back to her, reminding him they’re actually kind of having a conversation.

“Sorry, I thought I smelled something familiar.” Being in Haven at least never means you’ve got to make up excuses.

“Familiar how? Because if you say you smelt elephant ears than I’m sorry but I’m leaving you.” Her tone is so matter of fact that he can’t help but laugh. A nice sort of relief to some of the tension running through him.

But he shakes his head. “Not food, unless I’m paying attention to it I filter those out. No, this was...like something I’d smelled a long time ago but it’s been so long that I’ve even forgotten the smell.” He doesn’t think he can explain it any better than that, so they might be at an impasse.

“Huh,” Claire’s tone is absently thoughtful.

Much more familiar scents catch his attention though and when he turns around he sees Audrey and Nathan heading for them. A smile blooms on his face as he waves them over. He might have already known what they were going to wear, but that doesn’t stop the sight of them together from being stunning. He’s so damn lucky.

“Hey,” Audrey absently ducks down to kiss his cheek. “Hi Claire, good to see you. You’re coming tomorrow right?” That’s right Audrey’s girl’s night/wine drinking thing—honestly Duke has no idea where she finds the time, it’s sort of impressive.

Not that he pays much attention to their conversation beyond that, considering Nathan apparently decides he needs a better ‘hello’ than what Audrey gave him. Not that Duke’s complaining mind you.

“You think I can manage to get away on my own or should I call Kat to come pull me free before this turns into an orgy,” Claire’s says sotto voce, making him and Nathan pull apart, Nathan bright red; Duke just grins at him.

“I think you’re good,” Audrey laughs. “It was good seeing you. Talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yep,” Claire stands and smiles at the three of them. “Feel free to do a lot of things I wouldn’t do,” now both Audrey and Nathan are blushing and it’s Duke’s turn to laugh.

Taking advantage Duke tugs the both of them onto the bench with him. “Fancy meeting you here.” He waggles his eyebrows.

Nathan tries to narrow his eyes at Duke, but consider how flushed he still is it’s not as terrifying as it might be. “I have a badge, and we’re in public.”

“That’s not the tune you were singing last night,” Duke shoots back.

“Don’t make me separate you two,” Audrey teases with a fond shake of her head. “Now come on, I want to try and actually _do_ things this Founder’s Day instead of just work. Where should we start first?”


	2. Chapter 2

The next hour or two passes in a pleasant sort of blur for Audrey. Last year she hadn’t taken the time to really enjoy Founder’s Day, a mistake she doesn't want to make twice.

So she happily drags Nathan and Duke behind her as she wanders, trying demo booths on whims—spinning wool is harder than it looks—and happily consuming copious amounts of fried dough and sugar.

They run into Arla and James—who both look like they might have stepped out of the chalk scene in Mary Poppins—and have a nice enough conversation; things certainly feel like they’re smoothing out between herself and Arla, it helps that Arla feels less brittle and much happier than before.

When they separate Audrey finds her stomach rumbling. “Lunch?” She asks, batting her eyelashes.

Nathan groans while Duke eyes her. “We had funnel cake like ten minutes ago, most of which you ate,” it’s not quite an accusation but she rolls her eyes.

“You try being connected to Haven and see how much energy _you_ use up.” It’s kind of ridiculous really, she’s not even _doing_ anything, but the passive connection right now is pulling from her more than usual. She has to hope that as holidays go this is the worst it’ll get, even _Christmas_ hadn’t been this bad.

“Alright,” Nathan’s tone is soothing, trying to keep petty bickering to acceptable levels as he nudges them towards the row of food booths. “Lunch for Audrey then.”

But they’re almost there when Audrey finds herself trying not to bite back a groan, as she sees an almost brilliant flash of white. One that soon does indeed become her mother as it gets closer. None of them have heard or seen Conli since she…’healed’ Nathan, and Audrey’s been fine with that.

But it seems Conli isn’t done with them.

Nor is she alone.

As she gets closer Audrey notices her sister, her mind stumbles over that fact for a second, not exactly used to thinking it, and a man arm in arm with her; the man’s red hair nearly a match for Sigyn’s, but darker—his neatly trimmed beard and mustache on the other hand... The both of them looking like they might have stepped out of the same time period as Dwight and Lizzie—although the sunglasses the man is wearing do sort of ruin the image. Conli’s in costume too, although with it all being white on white it’s hard to tell what point in time Conli’s dressed up in.

“Should we be running away?” Duke asks and she appreciates the sentiment, but she thinks it might just be better for them to find out what Conli wants now and get it done and over with.

So she plasters on the best smile she can. “Conli,” she says when her mother is close enough. “It’s good to see you.”

Copper eyes narrow at her, clearly seeing through Audrey’s bullshit, a fact Audrey should have expected. But Conli only gives a brief shake of her head. “It is good to see you all hale and well. You remember your sister Sigyn?” She gestures.

Sigyn smiles and waves. “Hopefully we’ll actually be able to get to know each other this time.” Audrey finds herself smiling back in response.

“And this is her husband Loke.” The man inclines his head, this close Audrey can see pockmarks and rivulets just a shade lighter than the rest of his pale skin, scars of some sort, leaking out from around his sunglasses. He must be blind, a fact she finds surprising for some reason. “Sigyn, Loke, this is Evander and Nathanael, Audrey’s paramours.”

“What do you want mom?” Audrey does her best to keep exasperation out of her tone, but it’s an uphill battle. Nathan squeezes her hand.

She gets an indulgent smile. “Couldn’t I have just come to see you? It has been some time since our last meeting and I wanted to see that you were doing well. Your sister and her husband wanted to properly meet you as well.”

Audrey is leery of the first reason, but believes the second, and she’d admit it might be nice to get to know her sister.

“We appreciate your thoughtfulness Conli,” unlike her Nathan sounds like he might actually mean it, she finds she wishes she could do that.

“It is nothing Nathanael,” Conli waves him off. “But I must leave you for a moment, there is something curious over there that warrants my attention.” Audrey doesn’t know whether to feel grateful that Conli’s leaving them or bad for whatever, or whomever, has managed to catch her attention. Either way she drifts off towards the gazebo, leaving them.

Sigyn huffs a sigh and Audrey finds herself biting back a smile as she pulls Loke closer to them. “It is good to see you again, and I’m glad things have gone well for you here. And you’ll have to forgive my husband, he is not the most social of men.”

Next to her Loke’s lips twist in something like a smile. “I just feel as if I’ve done more than enough talking in my time dearest.” His voice is hoarse and gravelly.

“Well you and Nathan will get along just fine then,” Audrey says with sincerity and just a little bit of teasing, just barely she can hear Duke’s laughter and can imagine Nathan glaring at him.

“I talk,” Nathan protest.

She can feel Duke move behind her slightly. “Sometimes it feels like you only do it because you have to Nate.”

“We are in public,” she reminds them, more than happy to imagine what they’re doing. Not surprised when both Sigyn and Loke laugh, she rolls her eyes. “Would you like a tour? There’s certainly a lot to do today, I’m actually surprised you got into the spirit of things.”

“Mom told us about Founder’s Day,” doesn’t surprise Audrey at all. “And some walking around would be lovely. We rarely get out of the house as it were, and it feels good to be out among the people.”

“Speak for yourself,” Loke grumbles. Duke sniggers, which is cut short by Nathan’s elbow if what she can hear is anything to go by, she holds back a sigh.

She does finally turn around however, taking both Duke and Nathan’s arms in hand, and begins pulling them along.

-

Arla finds herself fidgeting as she waits for James to return with ice cream, her hands turn the stick of her parasol around and around, creating a little dancing pattern of shadows as the sun shines through the lace trim.

She knows James has noticed there’s something different about her, and tries not to feel hurt every time his eyes wonder why she’s been hesitant to touch him recently. It’s not that she’s drifting away from him, or suddenly doesn’t want _him_ anymore. It’s just that…

“Telling him is hard?” A woman’s voice interrupts, not quite as shocking as the fact that she seems to read Arla’s train of thought precisely.

Turning her head she looks at the woman now sitting next to her. When she’d bought the Edwardian gown she was currently wearing she’d thought it the whitest white available, yet now she finds herself completely mistaken. And not just by the woman’s own white dress. Every part of her is white save for her copper eyes.

Arla finds she isn’t quite afraid, but certainly wary. “Conli?” While James had given her the gist of what happened to him soon after they’d re-met, it had taken a bit longer to get actual details; yet his description of his grandmother makes her hard to mistake for anyone else.

“Arla,” Conli says with a faint smile and a tilt of her head. “You shouldn’t be worried you know,” one of Conli’s snow white fingers traces a line on the bench between them. “James’ powers don’t work like that, he won’t be able to tell the changes unless he knows to look for them. Mara would have been able to tell were she still alive, but none of her ectypes have the way of it.”

If Arla weren’t already aware of her own condition Conli’s words would confuse, and while they do bring a modicum of relief it’s not much. “So the only way he’ll know is if I tell him?”

“Indeed, and you should.” Conli leans back slightly, tilting her face towards the sun. “He’ll be overjoyed.”

“But what, what about…” Arla finds she can’t even finish the question. What about her heritage, her _curse_?

Conli turns her head, copper eyes staring straight into Arla and making her tremble at the force of them. “Oh ye of little faith. Although understandable.” It’s not quite condescension, but Arla still finds herself bristling at being talked to like that. Conli continues on however, unperturbed. “Since I think you’d prefer to hear it bluntly: James’ own biology will negate any ill...effects of your own. So you need not worry about any children being like yourself. Your family curse ends with you.”

A fact that’s a bigger relief than Arla thought it would be, she’d had her suspicions that something like that would happen, but to hear Conli say it outright is confirmation enough. “Thank you.”

It gets waved away. “It would be ill of me to not offer you _some_ sort of comfort Arla, you carry my first great-granddaughter. That’s not to be treated lightly.”

“Daughter?” Arla only found out last week that she’s pregnant, and not that far along. Yet Conli already knows the baby’s sex? Of _course_ she does, a part of her points out tartly, she wouldn’t exactly be _Life_ if she _didn’t_ know.

Again Arla gets the full brunt of Conli’s gaze, although the warmth in her copper eyes is unmistakable, “indeed. Sigyn only gave me grandsons and they sons as well, and none of my sons seemed interested in procreation.” For a brief moment Arla can feel Conli’s fingers ghost down her cheek. “Raise her well and she just might change the world.” The smile Conli gives makes Arla feel like she’d follow this woman, no this force of the cosmos, to the ends of the earth, if only she’d keep smiling like that.

And then she’s gone, the world around Arla just feeling a little, well, _less_ now that she’s vanished.

“Hey,” she starts at James’ voice. Managing a smile when he hands her a waffle cone. “Something the matter?”

She shakes her head, she’ll tell him that she met his grandmother later, there were more important things to share at the moment. Already she can practically taste her mint chocolate chip, but she holds herself back. “James, I’ve got something to tell you…”

-

Now with Sigyn and Loke in tow they do the whole rounds of the park again. Although her sister and her husband seem less interested in the historical booths than the art ones; Audrey finds herself wondering if falling in love with artists is a family tradition considering how easily Loke converses with the people minding the stalls about their work.

On her other side Duke sneezes, which has both her and Nathan looking at him in vague concern. “They smell...different,” he finally explains, making faces as if that will make his nose less sensitive. “It’s weird.” Audrey wouldn’t know, but she believes him.

“Audrey!” Even though she’s the only one being called the three of them still turn together, to see Lizzie and Erna bounding towards them. “Daddy was hoping I could stay with you while he and Jenny do adult things,” the way Lizzie makes a face at that probably means ‘adult things’ includes ‘making out like teenagers’, but she’s not going to fault Jennifer and Dwight for that.

”I don’t know,” Duke hunches down to be at eye level with Lizzie, and Audrey finds herself sharing a fond look with Nathan—because if babies are Nathan’s weakness, then it’s definitely kids for Duke. “You gonna make trouble?” There’s a teasing note in his voice.

But he seems to have forgotten Erna is there with Lizzie,  the dog promptly jumping on him and...either she’s trying to lick him or chew his face off, neither of which Audrey’s sure she wants. Lizzie seems to think it’s hilarious however while Nathan steps up to pull Erna off. “Stop that,” he stays emphatically to the dog now in his arms.

Behind her she hears light laughter and pulling her attention away she sees Sigyn attempting to stifle laughter and Loke looking a bit put upon. Sometimes Audrey just has to wonder if she’s the only responsible adult when it comes to certain situations. “If we can’t watch you where would to go?” She doesn’t see it being a problem, but she needs to know if there’s a backup just in case.

Erna squirms her way out of Nathan’s grasp while Duke stands and makes disgusted faces, “I might need a shower.” Big baby.

“Daddy says I should go ask Kat if you say no, and Uncle Tor if she says no.”

Audrey nods. “Well we can watch you, although I don’t know how much fun we’re going to be.” There’s no reason to lie to Lizzie, at least not about this.

Sigyn seems to have gotten a hold of herself, “and who’s this sister?”

“This is Lizzie, she’s our sort of granddaughter,” Audrey’s lips quirk in a smile. “Lizzie this is my half-sister Sigyn and her husband Loke.”

Lizzie isn’t usually shy but she does peer at the both of them curiously, a slight frown on her face. “You look like me,” Audrey’s not sure if that’s question or a statement from Lizzie, but it’s clear it’s directed at Sigyn.

“Indeed I do little one, Loke and I are much like yourself.” The way Sigyn speaks makes Audrey think she must have had children at one point; she can’t quite explain _what_ it is in her tone, but it’s one Audrey recognizes from other parents talking to children.

“You’re berserkers?” It comes out an amazed gasp, and Audrey finds herself smiling. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Nathan sharing her smile while Duke rolls his eyes.

“No,” Loke answers, a fact that surprises Audrey considering what Sigyn had said about his preference for not speaking. “Why would I want to be among your smelly bear-skin wearing ranks?” The words draw Audrey up short. How, she takes a deep breath trying to make sure her anger doesn’t get _too_ much of a hold on her.

But still, what sort of asshole insults a twelve year old girl?

She turns around as Lizzie responds. “Like a blind old man such as yourself can tell the difference?”

Nathan seems to be as caught off guard as she is, while Duke has his _phone_ out and looks like he might be recording this. She’s going to give him an earful about that later. But first she needs to step in and stop this.

She only gets a few steps before Sigyn reaches out to stop her. “Peace sister, it’s only a game.”

“A game?” How could insulting someone be a game? Why would that be a thing?

Yet Loke’s crouched down so that he and Lizzie are nearly the same height, and they’d be about eye to eye if Loke could see. “I may be blind, but at least I haven’t lost my senses little bear skin. Your pup can see better than you can, and she must be half blind herself.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes in a manner that’s indicative of what sort of teenager she’ll be. “Duh,” she says derisively. “She’s a dog and I’m just a little kid,” her face tilts up slightly in a haughty manner. “And you must be quite the coward going up against a kid like me,” well at least Lizzie’s giving as good as she gets? “My daddy could destroy you like Thor destroys frost giants,” she mimes a hammer swinging down. “Bam.”

“You call me coward you who hides behind your father’s skirts?” They’ve started to draw a little crowd, people recognizing Lizzie and muttering about who she’s...trading insults with. Audrey’s still not sure how comfortable she is with all of this, but Sigyn’s hand still holds her back. “He _must_ be Thor to dress like a woman so.”

“And you must be Loki to have tricked him into them.”

Loke throws his head back and laughs. “Well I know when I must concede defeat against such a skilled opponent.” Lizzie brightens as he stands and bows first to her and then to the gathered crowd. “I hope you all enjoyed a taste of flyting, brave Lizzie here will take on all comers and defeat them handily.” The crowd applauds and finally begin to drift away.

Duke moves up to congratulate Lizzie who’s excitedly asking him to send the video to her dad. But Audrey’s attention gets torn from them back towards Sigyn when the woman speaks softly. “Thank you for letting her win.”

“Of course,” Loke gives a small huff. “What pride should I have for taking down a child?” Audrey finds herself biting back an odd sort of smile, how strangely sweet.

“You!” A man thunders and the world falls into chaos as somebody rushes her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun duuunnn!
> 
> And yes, the Vikings insulted each other, for fun.
> 
> [Sigyn](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByWMC-JSV-ikM2VFZlJLMGM3RFU), [Loke](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByWMC-JSV-ikQ0ZoSHJWUzZNYXc), for the curious


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone's having a happy holidays.

He wanders through the fair, strangely bemused by what surrounds him. He knows he should be paying attention to where his kids are, being back home—a place he hasn’t been to in a long time—has distracted him quite handily; but they’re old enough to take care of themselves, even if they’re the reason he’s come back.

The sheer array of costumes from the townsfolk is impressive, although a niggling voice in the back of his head can’t help but point out when someone’s gotten it wrong. He does his best to ignore that part of him, the last leftovers of what he never wanted to be, what he’s never been—a headache starts to form between his eyes. His attention focuses on a woman doing a demonstration of a spinning wheel to distract himself from all of those thoughts.

“My daddy could destroy you like Thor destroys frost giants,” a girl says nearby. It’s not exactly his daughter’s voice, but close enough that despite himself he finds himself moving towards the crowd of people that have surrounded her and an older man by the sound of his reply. It’s not as if he can see the two...flytists, his mind supplies, thanks to the crowd.

But it’s over soon enough, and the crowd begins to dissipate, the girl looks nothing like his little Jean, although they might be the same age. And one of the two men next to her must be her father, or maybe both of them. The other man must have been her opponent if his voice is anything to go by, the woman next to him giving a fond smile at his question.

If their conversation continues he pays it no mind, not on the face of the final member of the group. Her dress is different than had been described to him, but the blonde hair, the eyes...it has to be her.

Unplanned anger rises in his chest, the likes of which he’s never experienced at all in his brief life. It consumes him and has him rushing for her “You!” He shouts, rage distorting his voice, making it sound almost bestial. “You killed him!”

-

Duke doesn’t think, trusting Nathan to keep Lizzie and Audrey safe he lunges for the man charging Audrey. He hits him side on and they go rolling. Tumbling as each one tries to get the best of the other. Snarling Duke’s claws slide into the man’s sides, making him grunt and snarl.

He does his best to press his advantage, but once again that smell that he can’t remember fills his nose again, except this time it’s full force, coming from the man who tried to attack Audrey, Duke realizes. A fact he finds himself unpleased with. Why’d this asshole get to be the mystery from Duke’s past?

Icy cold slides through him, drawing him up short. But the man, currently still below him almost seems to, well freeze up. “I’ve got him,” Loke says, voice deceptively soft.

Still Duke pulls away slowly, just in case the man manages to break free and tries to attack Audrey again.

As the heat of the fight dies away Duke finally gets a good look at the man. “Wade?!” He almost can’t believe his own eyes. His older brother tried to attack Audrey?

It’s been centuries since they last saw each other and this is how they meet after all that time?

Wade tries to struggle some, but whatever magic, and it’s _definitely_ magic, Loke’s got on him keeps in almost exactly in place. Finally he gives up, breathing heavy as his eyes dart around. “Ev?” There’s a bewildered note to Wade’s voice, like he can’t just believe what happened himself.

“What the hell is going on?” Nathan and Audrey chorus, and it’d almost be funny if Audrey hadn’t just been attacked.

Duke lets himself feel relief that she’s alright however, “I’ve got no freaking idea.” He somehow manages a bit more surprise to see that the haven’t drawn any attention to themselves. You’d think an altercation like that would have more people staring than the flyting had. Yet people move around them like a river, paying them no mind. But he can think on that later, right now he wants to know what the fuck Wade’s problem is. “Why the hell did you attack my girlfriend Wade?”

Wade looks stupefied like he can’t quite understand Duke’s question. “Girlfriend?” He says it slowly, like it’s a new word. “Ev, she killed grandpa.”

And what would his older brother’s visit be without an unwanted trip down memory lane? “Audrey’s a _cop_ Wade, and she’s definitely not old enough to have killed gramps.” But he still makes the connection. Genevieve must have looked a lot like Audrey does, and even though Wade wouldn’t have been born then it wouldn’t surprise Duke to know that their dad would’ve told him all about it. Doesn’t stop it from being super fucked up.

And today was going so well.

“Lizzie, can you go to Claire?” Audrey asks softly. Right, one less person to worry about if Lizzie’s gone.

At least Lizzie knows when not to press and she and Erna hurry away.

Wade shakes his head, “cop? No, she’s a, a…”

Duke sighs. “Wade, let me take you to the hospital. Something’s clearly wrong with you.” And there’s no better doctors than Haven’s to treat him. Still what’s his brother doing _in_ Haven? True he hasn’t seen him since their dad’s funeral, but from what little interaction they’d had Wade wanted nothing to do with this town.

Tearing his gaze away from Audrey, who’d been staring defiantly back, he looks at Duke and gives a shaky nod. “Yeah.”

Heaving a sigh of relief Duke looks at Audrey and Nathan, “you two got a hold of things?” Of course they do, he knows that, but asking helps center him, which he needs right now.

Nathan nods. “Yeah, go help your brother.”

On the whole Duke finds he’d rather not. Yet he somehow manages to overcome that anger in him and go over to his brother. “Can you let him go Loke?”

He takes one of Wade’s hands in his own and hauls up, Wade going as he pulls.

“Would you like me to come with you?” Sigyn’s voice surprises him. “I can keep up this illusion if you don’t want anyone to know he’s here.”

Ah, so that’s why no one’s paying them any attention, no one can _see_ them. “No,” he answers. “Thank you though,” always good to be polite. He gets an arm around Wade, ostensibly to help him, but just as much to hold him back should he try to attack again. Although right now he looks too confused to do much of anything besides walk.

Together they make their way out to the street. His truck’s still out by the Gull, so he drags Wade to the Bronco, even though he’s got a key for it now he still finds himself vaguely tempted to hotwire it; he doesn’t however and soon they're off.

“Why the hell are you in Haven anyways?” Probably not the best time to ask Wade considering, but Duke can’t wait any longer. “I thought you’d washed your hands clean of this place?”

In the passenger seat Wade looks more like himself the closer they get to the hospital. He turns his head slightly and leans his forehead against the window, taking what Duke is going to guess are calming breaths. “I need your help with something, something important.”

Duke takes a few calming breaths of his own, trying not to break the steering wheel again. “Help, seriously? After you tried to attack Audrey I’m tempted to say no.” Because why the hell should he help Wade? It’s not like he has any sort of brotherly affection for him.

“Said I’m sorry,” actually he hadn’t, but Duke bites his tongue before he lets himself fall into a tirade; if Wade gives him a stupid reason he needs help, well _then_ he’ll tear him a new one. “But I am serious, it’s, Christ didn’t realize it would be this hard.”

Having no sympathy for him Duke waits, focusing on not crashing into anyone.

“Okay, I need your help because, something’s happening to my kids,” Duke nearly comes to a screeching halt. “Duke, I don’t think they’re well.”

-

Nathan does his best to try and relax, but it seems to be a losing game, even with Duke hauling his brother off to be looked after. Audrey’s hand links with his and gives a comforting squeeze, and he pinches the bridge of his nose to try and ward off the headache creeping in on him—he knows he should tell _someone_ that he’s getting them when he shouldn’t be, but since he can’t even notice them most of the time he doesn’t know why he should bother.

“Let’s hope that the worst thing that happens today,” Audrey’s wry tone has them all chuckling; although it doesn’t quite help with his tension. He knows that even if Audrey’d been alone she would have been fine, that Haven would have done something to protect her, that she can fight her own fights. Which doesn’t stop him from freaking out about it.

“You okay Nathan?” Audrey asks him quietly, and when he opens his eyes—when did he close them?—she’s staring up at him, concern clear on her face.

He gives her the best smile he can. “I’m alright, just...jittery.” He looks around and frowns. “Where’s Sigyn and Loke?” He and Audrey are alone again, not that he minds, but he’d’ve thought he’d _notice_ the two of them leaving.

Audrey begins pulling him along by their joined hands, back towards the station he notices. “They wanted to do some exploring on their own, I think they went down to the beach for a stroll.” While it’s not exactly hot outside the station is still a nice burst of chill when they go in.

“Hey chief, Parker,” Jeremy intercepts them before they even get halfway to his office. “We’ve, ah, got some kids who can’t find their dad.”

It’s sort of exactly what he needs right now, something _else_ to focus on besides what Duke’s older brother might be doing in town—even if he’d already known Duke had a brother seeing him is still a shock on it’s own. “Audrey and I’ll deal with them in my office.” Jeremy nods and goes to get the kids.

Audrey lets go of him as he sits at his desk, finally feeling himself start to unwind, everything’s where it should be and smells like it should and it’s nice. “We should really think about getting another seat in here,” Audrey says as she leans against the desk. “Don’t exactly look professional doing this.” A laugh escapes him, although she has a point.

Jeremy steps through the door, a kid on either side of him holding his hands. They’re definitely siblings, and if Nathan had to guess he’d say they were fraternal twins with how similar they look. About Lizzie’s age they both have longish curly brown hair, one has brown eyes while the other’s are bright green, and they’re dressed similarly enough that Nathan couldn’t really guess as to their gender.

“Alright,” Jeremy tells the two kids with a smile. “Chief Wuornos and Detective Parker’ll help you find your dad alright?” He slips his hands out of theirs and ruffles their hair, the both of them try to duck out of the way, making annoyed faces.

Instead of taking both seats in front of his desk they squeeze themselves into one, their eyes staring expectantly at Nathan, a vaguely unnerving situation. He clears his throat and gets out his notepad. “How about you tell me your names?”

“I’m Jean and he’s Daniel.” The green eyed one, Jean, says.

“Youb smell funny,” Daniel says, sounding like he has a cold, before falling into a sneezing fit. He and Audrey share an amused look before she goes over to them with a box of tissues. “Thanks,” the boy says before taking the box from Audrey and all but tearing into it. On her way back Audrey steals the other chair.

Jean rubs her eyes, squints, then shakes her head. And Nathan finds himself with the sneaking suspicion that they’re not human, and going through whatever changes their kind does. They’re about the right age for it for certain species.

“Alright,” Audrey notices too, but really the best thing for them right now is getting them back to their dad, or family. “Can we get a last name? Do you have a number for your dad we can call? Or maybe your mom? Or another adult?”

Daniel uses up another tissues before answering, Jean looking too focused to answer properly. “Crocker,” well at least he sounds less congested.

“Nathan!” Nathan stares at her in confusion for a moment before following her own gaze to his hands. He’s snapped his pen in two, sending ink everywhere—Jean and Daniel are giggling—and he’d liked that pen too. He sighs.

“I’m fine,” he tells her. The kid’s giggling gets cut short when he looks at them again and he does his best to try and relax what must be an angry look on his face. “Did you say Crocker?” They definitely can’t be Duke’s kids, not unless Duke had a serious relationship he’s never told them about. But if they’re Wade’s, well things have certainly gotten a whole lot more frustrating.

Jean finally seems to shake off whatever was happening to her, “yep! Our dad’s Wade Crocker, he acts funny a lot, but we know he loves us.”

Great, this is just, great.

Luckily Audrey steps in. “Your dad’s not feeling alright at the moment and he got taken to the hospital to get looked at. Do you want us to take you to him?”

The kids stare at them warily, clearly debating on whether or not to say yes; if Nathan had to guess they grew up in a city, where people weren’t always nice—not that Haven was as clean as it looked, but it helped that most people didn’t have to hide what they were.

Part of him wants to say he’s not going to hurt them. If they’re right about being Wade’s kids, and he sees no reason for them to lie, then they’re Duke’s nephews?, niece and nephew?, niblings. Nathan would rather hurt himself before them. But if they’re wary of Audrey then what sort of reaction would those words get?

He and Audrey share a look, and Nathan decides to go for broke. “We can use the siren.” Kids always seem to love that for reasons he doesn’t understand. Although if they’re werewolves like Duke their ears might not appreciate it.

Yet the kids brighten and it looks like he’ll be abusing police protocol, a fact Duke would love and apparently Audrey too if the giggles she’s trying to hold in are any indication.

Nathan’s not sure he wants to know how he earned this.

-

The nurse at the desk is more helpful than Audrey expects him to be, although she guesses they’ve become a sort of staple here, if unwillingly. Jean and Daniel trail behind them everything about them either confused or over stimulated, possibly both; but it hadn’t escaped her notice the way the two of them relaxed when they’d pulled into the hospital parking lot, and she’s not sure she wants to think of what sort of life they’d had.

When they get to the right hall however the two are off like a shot, barreling into the room the nurse had told them. Deciding discretion might be the better part of valor at the moment she hangs back, tugging Nathan along with her towards a row of seats. “Let’s give them a little space.” She expects Duke’ll come staggering out sooner or later and they can be there to catch him when he does.

Hooking an ankle around Nathan’s—just in case—she snags a magazine from the nearby table. Promptly snorting when she reads the title for the main article. “I can’t believe people are worried about this.” She turns the magazine to show Nathan. _Did the Mayans predict the end of the world? The facts about 2012 inside_.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” he shrugs. “People always worry about the end of the world.”

More for laughs than anything else, because right now she could use some humor, she flips to the right page and starts reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Niblings BTW is the gender neutral term for nieces/nephews.
> 
> See you next year!


	4. Chapter 4

Duke knows for a fact that sometimes negative results are worse than positive ones. At least with a positive one you _know_ , a negative? Well it could be all sorts of things, things that medical science and magic don’t know about—the worst things of all.

It doesn’t help that the doctor overseeing Wade had pulled him aside and told him there were strange irregularities in Wade’s tests, things they expected to be in their results because he’s a werewolf, but most definitely weren’t.

And now Duke has to figure out how to ask Wade about it, because it’s not exactly easy to hide those sorts of things. But at least Wade seems better now; Duke just has to hope that if Audrey and Nathan swing by that there’s not a repeat of earlier.

Wade lies on the hospital bed, clearly unhappy having to be there, waiting on ‘just one more test’ for what’s at least been an hour. It’d grate on Duke too if they switched places. But Duke knows it’s now or never. “Hey Wade…”

Which is when two kids burst into the room, not even looking around before they leap onto the bed. “Daddy!” They chorus together, and they’re lucky Duke already sort of knew, because otherwise he’d probably be freaking the fuck out about now.

From where he sits they look like identical twins, same shaggy curly brown hair, same slight frames, almost dressed the same, they even sort of sound the same. If they weren’t so happy he’d almost think it something out of a horror movie. But they’re babbling on about the nice police officers who brought them here and how they got to turn on the siren, and despite himself Duke finds himself biting back a smile.

Yet he also finds himself curious, because they seem completely fine, what on earth could be wrong with them?

“Alright, alright,” Wade raises his voice slightly, and the kids quiet down. “I’m glad you’re both okay and that you stuck together like you promised. But I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet.” He nudges them both and they turn to face Duke. A pair of brown eyes and a pair of green.

“Jean, Daniel, I’d like for you to meet your uncle Evander, Ev, these are my daughter Jean and my son Daniel. He’s the one who’s gonna help you get better.”

Duke gives them the friendliest smile he can. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you both.” He waffles between sticking out his hand or not and decides not. “And I hope I can help.” It’s a hedging, but it’s all he can offer, because for all he knows Wade is seriously overestimating his skills. “And call me Duke, everyone does.” It’s one thing for Conli to call him Evander, but he’s not sure if he can take it from Wade, because it makes him feel like that eight year old boy again.

That eight year old boy who desperately wanted to kill his older brother.

Jean and Daniel stare at him for a few seconds more, like they can read his thoughts, and he hopes not, because they’re not exactly ones he wants to share. “Unbcle Dubke?” Daniel sounds congested, and then falls into a sneezing fit.

“That sounds funny,” Jean says plainly and it brings a real smile to Duke’s face despite Wade’s unhappy glance at her.

But despite the fact that they seem wonderful kids and Daniel’s clearly coming into his sense of smell, they seem alright to Duke. “What’s wrong with them?” He asks Wade.

“They’ve been acting funny sometimes for the past few months. Daniel keeps getting these sneezing fits and saying he can smell things he shouldn’t be able too. Jean here tells me sometimes her eyes hurt and that a room’s too bright when it’s barely lit at all. About once a month they just, start fighting each other over the stupidest things, and once when we were out at the park Jean chased a squirrel up a tree.” Duke frowns, his expression deepening with every word. “They tell me their clothes itch when it’s stuff they’ve had for years and never complained about before, I’ll go to wake them up in the morning and find that the other’s crawled into bed with the other. It’s...weird.”

Duke’s managed to connect the dots, but is surprised all the signs have somehow escaped Wade, you’d think he’d know the damn symptoms of becoming a werewolf. “Really? You think all that stuff’s _weird_ ? I mean I remember my own changes being kind of the worst.” And he’d done it on a _ship_ surrounded by superstitious sailors. It’s probably a miracle he hadn’t gotten caught, on the other hand he’d had more than a few whippings for supposedly ‘shirking’ his duties.

Now Wade’s the one frowning, and seriously, what’s his deal? “This isn’t puberty Duke. There’s definitely something wrong with them.” Jean and Daniel seem wholly uncaring of the fact that he and their dad are talking about them right in front of them. Disturbing in and of itself.

Okay, this is seriously some weird ass shit. Too bad Duke can’t just outright say that—although he doesn’t doubt the kids already know _all_ the curse words. “Seriously Wade? I know it’s not puberty, I just don’t understand how you’ve missed what it is completely, I’d think it pretty damn obvious considering what we are.”

“‘What we are?’ What the fuck does that mean Duke? I’m pretty damn sure I’m as human as the next person,” Duke nearly lets out an hysteric giggle. “Are you high? Christ, I can’t believe I let you _drive_.”

Now that’s just rude. Blood fills his mouth from where he bites his tongue. Because seriously, Wade thinks he’s a human? Which definitely _is_ some fucked up shit. “I need to go,” he says it between gritted teeth that are probably covered in blood, not that he cares at the moment.

Because Jean and Daniel are becoming werewolves and Wade thinks Duke can _fix them?!_

Without waiting for a response he storms out of the room, he just, he needs to get out. Get away from his brother and his delusions before he feels the urge to kill Wade again. He catches Nathan and Audrey’s scents in the hall, but he goes the other way, he needs to punch something that won’t be hurt, even if Nathan would probably offer himself as a punching bag.

He finds an empty room at the end of the hall and storms into it. The drywall cracks under his fist and it feels kind of amazing, he keeps punching until he no longer feels the urge to strangle his brother and his knuckles have cracked. His hands tingle as they heal and he shakes them to try and relieve the sensation. He’s definitely going to have to make a donation of some sort.

“Are you alright Duke?” It’s Audrey who asks and when he turns it’s to see the both of them lingering by the doorway, the offer of giving him more space if he needs it clear. But it’s not space he needs anymore.

Without a second thought he goes up to them and gathers them into a hug, pulling them tightly against him and just letting himself _be_ for a moment. Drinking in their combined scents and the feel of them embracing him back.

His lovers, his _pack_ , here and giving him exactly what he needs.

After a few more minutes he feels like he can talk again. “There’s definitely something wrong with Wade, he thinks he’s a freaking _human_. Those kids are turning into werewolves and he’s somehow deluded himself into thinking they’re _sick,_ that I can make them better. Fucking hell, I didn’t fucking think there could be anything that fucked up in the world.” It’s sick and _wrong_ and Duke, Duke wants to take Jean and Daniel far, _far_ away from Wade. Because it’s clear his brother has lost his mind, and Duke doesn't want to think of what he’ll do to Daniel and Jean when he realizes there’s no ‘cure’.

-

Nathan feels a twisting in his stomach at Duke’s words, at the pain and frustration he’s clearly feeling. On his other side Audrey makes soothing noises, pulling Duke’s head down towards her, Nathan just tightens his hold on the both of them. Taking his own sort of comfort in the feel of their bodies resisting and giving, the tension in his own muscles from his actions.

They stay that way for a few long minutes, and it’s nice. Even if the reason they’re doing it is indeed ‘fucked up’; Nathan can’t quite believe it himself. Sure Wade would have to hide what he is from the outside world, but there’s survival and then there’s denial. And what reason does he have to doubt what Duke says? It won’t be the first time Nathan’s seen someone deny who, or what, they are, although in the case of Wade it’s certainly the most complex.

“We’ll figure this out,” Audrey’s all to familiar determination fills her voice. And Nathan’s pretty sure he’s not the only one bolstered by it.

Nathan does pull away, but he finds himself smiling faintly into Duke’s hair. “At the very least you can help Jean and Daniel, show them the ropes.” They deserve to know, and to learn how to control themselves so they can survive.

Duke sighs, his body seeming to fall into them even more. “I know, I will, I…” Another sigh. “This is _not_ how I expected my day to go.” Both Nathan and Audrey give quiet laughs.

“This is Haven,” Audrey teases, “pretty sure there’s a law about that.” She shoots him a sly glance.

“Definitely,” Nathan agrees with a solemn nod, turning his head enough for his cheek to lie on the top of Duke’s head. “Seen it with my own eyes.”

Now Duke’s the one laughing weakly and it’s a staggering relief to hear. “I love you,” he says it softly, voice rough from unshed tears.

He and Audrey both give him one final squeeze before pulling away. “And we love you too.” Audrey’s own smile is a little watery, Nathan thinks his own might match. “Think there might be a law on that too.”

“Yep,” Nathan drawls slowly. “Seen that one too. Carved on the cliffside. Big ass letters you can see from space.”

“Alright, alright,” Duke’s laughing again, eyes crinkling like they do when he’s really happy. “I get it, don’t have to be such a sap about it.” Nathan rolls his eyes at Duke’s teasing; like he expects anything different.

They kiss, an action Nathan’s never taken for granted, but finds with the two of them he especially savors. “Ready to face the world again?” Audrey asks as they break apart.

“As I’ll ever be,” Duke responds, rolling his shoulders in an exaggerated manner.

“I’ll come with you, I think I won the kids over with the siren.” He loops his arm through Duke’s they probably’ll make a sight with them still in their costumes, but the three of them are old news now.

Duke rolls his eyes, but can’t hide the smile on his face, “lug.” Another fond tease.

“And I guess I’ll be making nice with the nurses about the wall,” Audrey’s voice is teasingly dry. “I see how it is. White knights riding off to save the kids while I’ve got to run the kingdom.”

Duke gives her a solemn look, almost ruined by his crinkling eyes again. “And what a king you’d be Audrey. Although I must say, of the three of us you’re the _real_ angel.”

Nathan gives Duke a playful shove. “Hey now.” But it’s true.

“Go on,” Audrey darts back towards them for two final kisses. “Get to work and let’s fix this.”

Nathan smiles while Duke gives a lazy salute and they part ways. Nathan rolls his own shoulders, the feel of Duke’s skin under his thumb centering him and helping him focus. Audrey’s right, they _are_ going to figure this out and help Jean and Daniel. They deserve that much at the very least.

-

Jennifer gives a huff as she flings herself into a chair at Rosemary’s, and today had been going so _well_.

And then she and Dwight had to have a _fight_.

Well, alright, fight might be pushing it. They’d been at one of the few game booths and Dwight had been determined to get her a giant stuffed animal and it’d been ridiculously romantic in a nostalgic sort of way. And then when he’d handed it to her he’d asked her to move in with him.

She hadn’t even thought before saying ‘no’ and then he’d asked why—to his credit it had been an actual question and not a demand—and, well, things had gone slightly downhill from there.

There’s no doubt in her mind that when they both cool down they’ll make up, talk things out like adults and figure out boundaries they probably should have at the start, but for now all she is is irked at him. She does her best to ignore her imagination—going wild at this point—which is trying to tell her that it’s all over now, they’ll break up and it’ll start some Capulet and Montague style feud.

“Penny for your thoughts dearest?” Nana’s voice coming from right across from her makes Jennifer jump, caught completely off guard. But there she is in the seat in front of her, two coffees and scones on the table.

“Don’t do that,” she takes a deep breath. “You almost scared the shit out of me.”

Conli gives her a sharp sort of smile. “Apologies.” She pushes a coffee and scone towards her. “You are very much the spitting image of your mother,” the sharpness in her smile fades away. “Audrey might not want to hear this, but of all her pasts Margaret was the most like me, I was...mmm, sad when she finally entered the Barn.”

Jennifer sips her coffee, unsurprised that it’s exactly how she likes it. “Thanks, I think. Why’re you here?” She and James might not have the constant suspicion Audrey does, but they both know how Conli is.

“I came to met Arla, and to encourage your Aunt and Uncle to get out a little more.” A corner of her mouth twitches, for the briefest moment giving her a real smile. “I can only stand to have my children underfoot for so long.” She shrugs. “So I thought I would say hello to you as well, and James too later on. Felicitations on your relationship.”

Another huff leaves Jennifer, and she finds herself half tempted to just destroy her scone, instead she takes a bite, pleased when she tastes raspberries. “It’s not exactly going that well at the moment,” she discloses, although she’s sure half of Haven already knows by now, the ‘fight’ having been fairly public.

Conli arches a questioning eyebrow and Jennifer finds herself telling her nana everything. “And it’s not like I don’t _want_ to move in with him, but the way he asked it just felt so…” She doesn’t even know the word for it, only that something about it irked her. It might be hard to eventually convey that to Dwight, but she’s going to damn well try, so that it, hopefully, doesn’t happen again.

“In a way little spats are good things, so long as you know you both agree on the big things. I should hope you’ve at least had talks about that.”

Some of them yes, Dwight knows that she’s got no interest in having children of her own—but she’ll gladly adopt—and she knows that he wants marriage, perhaps his invitation to move in was the first step towards that. “I can’t imagine how listening to me go on about relationship problems is helping you.” It’s not exactly her trying to steer the conversation away, but she does actually mean it. What benefit does this give her nana?

Nana laughs, the kind you expect a grandmother to have, warm and full of mirth. “Oh dearest,” she lays a hand on one of Jennifer’s. “Even the tiniest thing can have the biggest impact. The fruits of this conversation might not be born for a hundred years, but none the less born shall they be. Like tiny ripples building into a tidal wave.”

She doesn’t really understand, on the other hand she didn’t really expect to. “Did you and grandpa fight a lot?” Audrey hadn’t really told them much about him, only that he’d been a painter and had died soon before Audrey’d been born.

“The way of the world was different then. I was posing as a mortal woman, and so had to at least appear to bend to its edicts. So to most I followed the wishes of my husband as any good wife should, but once we did argue, I accused him of loving his paintings more than me,” perhaps the most shocking thing of all is the look of genuine regret on Conli’s face. “I had just realized I was pregnant with Mara and I had thought if he truly loved me he would have noticed as well. I think my words are what prompted him to paint me…”

Her expression grows pensive as she stares into her coffee. “Being with him was the only selfless thing I’d ever done, and all it cost me was the one I love.” Her gaze meets Jennifer’s eyes and Jennifer has to look away, her eyes are so _old_ , too heavy with things Jenny can’t even begin to comprehend.

“I’m, I’m sorry,” it’s not enough, no mortal words probably ever would be, Jenny doesn’t even think _angelic_ has the right words to comfort her nana.

“It’s I who should apologize,” this time when Conli’s hand touches her’s again it feels warmer. “I should not trouble you with old wounds, they aren’t for the likes of you.” Her hand squeezes Jennifer’s. “But perhaps it will help you with your own troubles.” Nana leans across the table and kisses Jenny’s cheek. “I wish you the best of luck. And seek out your aunt, she will perhaps have more apt words than I, and I believe you and your uncle Loke will get along well.”

With that Conli stands and leaves. Jennifer finishes her own coffee before standing to go, intent on finding Dwight, on doing their best to fix this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I like how it took me four chapters to get through a day...


	5. Chapter 5

Like always the few days after Founder’s Day Haven takes things easy, a fact Audrey appreciates considering how drained _she_ feels. And it’s not only because Haven’s drained.

The thing with Wade and his kids has left them all confused and a bit lost, her desire to _help_ burning bright in her, yet she has nothing exact to focus it on; on Wade and figuring out what’s wrong with him? Jean and Daniel themselves? Some factor they probably have yet to discover?

At the very least it’s cast a pall over the three of them, enough that she’d had trouble expressing of the joy she really had felt when Arla had announced to everyone that she was pregnant. James at least hadn’t been deterred, beaming like a sun the whole time.

He’s still beaming now even, happily accepting the congratulations and slaps on the back from the rest of the force as he comes into their office. “I don’t like that look,” he tells her as he sits at his desk, it brings a wan smile to her face. “Bad things are happening aren’t they?”

“Nothing new,” she tells him, grateful for that at least. “Just our current problem.” None of them had wanted to blacken the mood after Arla’s announcement, but James and Jenny had pressed, and they had the right to know, what might happen with Jean and Daniel—their _cousins_ —could affect them.

James makes a commiserating noise as he rotates his chair back and forth. “Do you want me to take a look at him? I might be able to find something out.”

“It’s worth a shot,” she agrees, although how she’s going to _get_ James and Wade in a situation where they’ll meet sounds like a headache in and of itself at the moment. But she’s going to have to deal. “Right now we’ve got work to do,” even if, for once, she finds she’d rather not. But Haven won’t stop having its problems just because she’s got personal problems, just the opposite in fact.

He gives an exaggerated groan as he stands up and it manages to bring a faint smile to her face. In lieu of talking she hands him the report that’d been called in a few minutes ago as they head out.

“Noise complaint?” He sounds surprised that it’s them dealing with it.

It makes her smile a little more. “You need to learn to read the whole thing before asking questions,” it’s both a tease and a slight reprimand. She waves at Nathan as they pass his office, and even though it’s been months it does feel sort of strange to be going out without him. “According to their neighbors the Prewitt sisters are being...frisky.”

James gives a frown of confusion and starts pelting her with questions as they drive off.

-

The full length mirror she stands in front of is a work of art in and of itself, the frame lovingly carved into people cavorting with one another, some in more sexual ways than others.

Not that Arla pays too much attention to it, what with most of her focus on her own reflection.

It’s not the one she’s grown used to currently, no ashy blonde hair, no sharp cheekbones.

No her hair’s warmer in tone, almost golden, her skin slightly darker, spatterings of freckles all over her bare skin, a less angular face, but one that has a...rougher feel to it, a slight unevenness to the features. It didn’t make her unattractive, nothing that extreme, but it did, as James had once told her, add character.

Her old face, old skin.

The person she’d been when James first met her, first fell in love with her.

With trembling fingers she reaches out and touches the mirror, feels the coolness of the glass.

“It could be yours again,” a voice that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere echoes around her, the words are neutral and even, nothing to even give away a possible gender.

“What do you mean?” Skinwalkers couldn’t go back to old shells, the curse holding her made it impossible, once a skin had been used up it dissolved away, never to be seen again. A fact that had been driven into her as a child and then seen with her own eyes once she’d begun her own sheddings.

A shiver passes through her as she feels invisible fingers brush her shoulders. “I can give you this back, forever even. Break your curse forever.” The words are almost cajoling, certainly enticing.

“How?” The first flickers of suspicion spark in her, there _was_ no cure, not even James could cure her, only stave off indefinitely. Conli might have been able to, but Arla felt no desire to hear the woman tell her ‘no’.

“It’s a simple thing,” the voice says. “Just say yes, and all will be as you want it.”

Her eyes narrow. “That can’t be it, no one, no _thing_ is that altruistic.” She knows _that_. Everyone wants something, however small. “There’s a catch. You want something from me.”

A brief catch of laughter, “clever girl.” Something about those words makes her skin crawl. “It’s such a small tiny thing I want,” Arla’s both pleased that she’s right and relieved that this...thing isn’t lying to her anymore. “I want your daughter, I’ll pluck her from you right now, we can make it seem like a miscarriage, such an easy thing to happen at this stage. But you’ll be exactly what you want to be.”

Her blood goes cold as Arla looks at her old refection. Give up her daughter?

In a way this thing is right, it should be such an easy thing to give her up, after all Arla’s barely a month pregnant, the baby can’t be much more than a fetus. She and James can always try again, have more children.

And yet, and yet, this is her _baby_ , her _daughter_. Something she and James created together that is wholly theirs. And this thing wants her to _give it up??_ A girl, the first great granddaughter of Life itself, one in Conli’s own words might just change the world? A Hamel without the skinwalker curse?

“No,” Her body trembles in anger and certainty. “She’s _mine_ , I won’t give her up, not for myself, not for the damn world.” Without thinking her hand shoots out, the mirror shattering on impact, though her hand remains unharmed.

The light begins to die away as the thing gives a regretful sigh. “You would have been perfect.”

“Fuck you,” she spits out, her eyes narrowing as notices something different about the frame. “I _am_ perfect.”

...the bodies weren’t cavorting, they were _con_ torting. In pain…

Arla’s eyes open with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. With a soft groan she rolls over, she doesn’t expect to find James still in bed with her, he’d briefly woken her to give her a goodbye kiss before he’d gone to work, but more to try and catch a familiar hint of him.

But as she rolls her stomach protest and with a groan she gets up and hurries to the bathroom.

When she finishes she takes a few gulps of water to sooth her throat. She finds herself looking down at her still flat stomach, “I’m pretty sure I just said no to a demon bargain for you. The least you could do is be considerate of me.” It’s either that or she had the weirdest of all pregnancy dreams. To be fair it’s possible, don’t all women worry about their figure when they’re pregnant? Being a skinwalker could just be making it worse? It probably doesn’t help that her wedding’s next month and it’d be a pain in the ass to get her gown altered.

It’s almost enough to make her wish she was still on good terms with her mother to ask her. Almost.

-

“Christ,” Duke finds himself rolling his eyes at Wade’s surprise. “I’d forgotten how run down this place is.” It almost makes Duke laugh, the house had been all but new when _Wade_ had been growing up in it. “Did we even have electricity?”

After the past few days Wade’s oddness doesn’t even register as strange anymore, it’s just another piece they need to make note of to add to this strange puzzle. “No,” it’s even the truth. “Didn’t even have running water.” Nothing made you appreciate showers more than the experience of drawing up, and heating, water for a bath.

Wade finally steps from the threshold and into the hall. Back in the ballroom Duke can hear Jean and Daniel creating chaos, the house should be sturdy enough that they won’t hurt themselves, but Duke finds himself worrying anyways.

“I’m surprised CPS didn’t just haul us away from dad, I mean you can’t even really heat the place.” He gives one of those disappointed shakes of his head. “Remember that year it got so cold we actually had to worry about frostbite? Jesus, it’s probably a miracle of some sort that we turned out alright.”

“Yeah, sure,” all Duke can really be is noncommittal, because he _doesn’t_ remember. Wade had been long gone by the time Duke was born, although he’d come back before mom’d died—Duke was too young too have memories of that however—they’d never grown up together. Certainly not long enough to have experienced a winter together, let alone one where a _werewolf_ would have to worry about frostbite—it’d been a close thing in 1816 though.

“What year were you born Wade?” He might as well straight up ask, beating around the bush might only get more confusion from his brother.

Wade arches an eyebrow as he stops in front of the study. “Pretty sure as the older brother _I’m_ the one who should be worrying about memory problems Duke.” Wade says ‘Duke’ strangely, like it doesn’t fit his tongue, which Wade’s just gonna have to live with because no way no how is he answering to ‘Ev’ anymore. “And 1966, you were 72, mom died early 74, and dad died in 80.”

At least it gives him a base to go from now, and despite himself he _is_ taken aback by the dates, whatever’s happened to Wade’s deep, _really_ deep.

“Jesus, look at this place,” Wade’s eyes move around the study, taking in the shelf lined walls and a few dim paintings. “We were one of those families weren’t we?”

Duke doesn’t even care, at this rate he’s going to run himself into exhaustion trying to keep up with Wade’s fake life. “Probably,” for one they’d actually be able to afford _good_ painters to do family portraits. “Did you have a reason for coming here, to the house, Wade?”

Wade looks at him in askance, “I thought the kids would like to see it, I mean it’s kind of a shit hole, but not a lot of people can say they grew up in an historic monument.” There’s a brief pause where Wade looks contemplative. “And I wanted to see what condition it was in, I know you’re the owner Duke,” thank heavens for that, the place would probably be in even _worse_ condition if Wade had kept it like he was supposed to. “But I was thinking the kids and I could move in while we’re here, better than wasting money at a hotel.”

A lot of the local business owners would probably disagree with that, but it’s not worth the energy to argue. Yet Wade’s not quite a question still takes him aback; sure he’d offered the run of the place to James and Jennifer, but well, one is his daughter and the other had been/is a good friend. Which is different than the brother her hardly knows.

Yet saying no feels sort of petty, especially when he doesn’t have a good reason for refusing. “Sure, at least it’s summer.” Or near enough as to make no difference. “House keeps pretty cool, and I got running water installed, so there are actual bathrooms.” He shrugs, “no locks though.” Not anymore at least; the only reason he doesn’t have to deal with trespassers and vandals is that the locals know better than to do it, and for the tourists and summer folks who don’t, well the police check by about once an hour. “I’ll stop by the station and let them know you’re moving in so I don’t get calls in the middle of the night.”

Wade gives a short laugh. “Thanks, I think.”

“You should come down to the Gull for a drink,” it’s now or never on that front. “I can call Jenny to watch the kids and we can hang out.” Which feels a bit like tempting fate, but he’s willing to chance it for now, and they might not get a better time to find out if something’s wrong with him.

“Sure, although I’d at least like to meet this Jenny.”

Duke does his best not to grit his teeth, because Wade should trust him, believe that if Duke told him Jennifer was his daughter it was true; but Wade wouldn’t believe that, and it hurt not to be able to tell him, she was his _niece_.

“Of course,” he at least manages to sound pleasant. “I’ll call her and tell her to come over.” He hopes Jenny doesn’t have any plans for the night, and if she does he’ll probably be making it up to her for a while.

-

James feels a bit like he’s stepped into a spy movie, he’s certainly seen a lot recently with Arla all but in control of the TV—not that he minds, he enjoys the action and drama—what with him sitting at the end of the Gull’s bar, watching Wade Crocker get drunk as a skunk, Duke enabling him.

He would certainly be more worried if it hadn’t been all planned out.

At the moment Wade’s drunk enough to try and convince the people next to him to sing along with him—he’s lucky it’s a Saturday crowd, they’re at least forgiving. “Snow is red and wet. Where’s, come on,” he nudges the man trying to drink his pina colada in peace. “Where’s the goddamn bar? There’s-”

“You’re _at_ the goddamn bar Wade,”  Duke interrupts. “Now be nice, too much exposure to your dulcet tones and people’re gonna get immune to them.”

Wade sways, catching himself on the bar. “You’re the best damn brother, with the best goddamn bar. Why didn’t we ever visit each other?”

James is supposed to be there, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling like a voyeur when Wade asks that question, even if he’s curious about the answer himself. He understands why Duke’s closed mouth about his family, but he still sort of _wonders_.

“Because you hate Haven, and New York’s too much of a hassle for me.” It’s probably a good thing Wade’s drunk, because that feels more like a pat answer than anything else, at least to James.

“New York’s amazing,” Wade slurs. “You’d fit right in.”

Duke laughs and rolls his eyes. “Okay, that’s it, cutting you off Wade. And I’m calling you a cab.” Which is James’ cue.

He stands and watches as Wade struggles to stand, once he’s upright though James starts weaving his way through the crowd, nodding and saying hi to people he knows. He bumps into Wade, brushing their hands against each other.

And like that Wade slumps into sleep.

There are some stares, but it’s also not the first time someone’s fainted dead away at the Gull James’ sure—it’s probably because it’s Duke’s brother really. But with planned ease he and Duke haul Wade upright and carry him to Wade’s sedan. They lay him out across the back and James crouches by Wade’s head, resting his hand on the man’s cheek.

“Well?” Behind closed eyelids James rolls his eyes at Duke’s impatience.

”I actually need some time and quiet to work Duke,” he means it well though, because he knows Duke’s worried.

At least Duke shuts up and lets him work. Taking a deep breath he focuses inwards, nothing on the surface says that there’s something wrong with Wade, no weird tumors, or clots, no signs of lightning strikes. Then again if Wade had any of those the doctors should’ve picked it up. So James dives deeper.

Which is harder to do, the physical James has down pat, give him a broken body and he can fix it near perfectly.

But minds are tricky things, especially when you get to the less...physical parts of them.

Still he starts picking up things, not flashes of memory or emotions, but a general sense of Wade’s mind, that he can get.

It really does feel like a human mind, a fact James finds disconcerting. Yet the longer he lingers the more he feels and...offness to it all. A sheen and slick he’s never experienced before. Like someone went in and...smoothed edges of Wade’s mind.

And that sheen and slick is taunting him with the fact that he can’t fix it. Not unless he can figure out what it _is_. It certainly doesn’t help that he’d have no idea if what he was doing was actually _helping_ Wade or not, considering he had no idea what Wade’s mind _should_ be like.

He forces himself to pull away though, if he stays too long it’s bad for him. His legs protest profusely when he stands, joints aching in a way that reminds him he’s sixty.

“You okay?” He smiles at Duke’s concern.

“Yeah, I’m good. And you’re right, there’s something wrong with him, no idea _what_ it is though.” James makes a face. “It’s like someone went in and...cleaned up his mind, it’s weird. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it before.” Only in Haven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Wade sings is "Hail Colombia" by American Murder Song, which considering all their stuff is done to sound like old time drinking songs/murder ballads I felt wholly justified in having be an old drinking song.


	6. Chapter 6

None too carefully he lays Wade’s unconscious body on the bed, just barely holding back an annoyed sigh. He has a feeling Wade’s not going to win father of the year awards anytime soon.

When he turns back around he gives a little twitch at seeing Daniel and Jean standing in the doorway, staring at the both of them. “Is dad okay?” Jean asks, voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah,” Duke replies just as quietly, “he’ll be fine. Just needs to sleep for a while.” Lying to them won’t exactly do any good so why bother? But with Wade out of commision for the moment Duke does see an opportunity. “You should come downstairs with me, I’ve got something I want to share with you.”

He makes his way to the door, but Jean and Daniel don’t budge, and he could move them, but he wants them to trust him. He gives a little sigh and crouches down so he’s eye level with them. He doesn’t know what made them so suspicious, but he can deal with it, doesn’t have much of a choice really. “What if I swore on Haven that I’ll never hurt you unless I have no other choice.” He does feel a brief burst of amusement at the idea of swearing on Audrey. “Your dad’s right about one thing at least, I _want_ to help you. But I can’t do that if you don’t give me a little trust.”

His teeth flash in a brief smile. “And I have it on the utmost surety that this is pretty cool.” Nathan might complain about Duke’s ego, but Duke’s pretty sure he kind of deserves it—and really Nathan’s one to talk.

“Okay,” Daniel agrees, as he and his sister step aside as one. Duke’s gonna put that one in the creepy-cool category.

He leads them down to the ballroom, it’s cooler down here, and there’s a breeze from the open windows. With no chairs Duke just sits on the floor, gesturing at the space before him. He waits for Jean and Daniel to sit down before leaning towards them just a little. “You can’t ever tell your dad what I’m about to tell you alright? Something happened to him that means what we have in common he doesn’t anymore and he won’t believe it. Like in the hospital.”

At the mention of a secret he knows he’s got Daniel and Jean’s full attention, which is good. As are their nods.

“Our family isn’t like a lot of others, we’re special. It doesn’t make us weird, or freaks, just different. And there are a lot of people in the world that are different, not like we are, but they’re just as human as you or I,” his lips curl up. “Which is to say not a whole lot.”

Taking a deep breath he closes his eyes and focuses. “Because you see, us Crockers,” he opens his eyes, knows they’re glowing sliver by the way the kids gasp and have gaping mouths. “We’re werewolves.”

The two of them keep staring.

He flexes his fingers briefly, feeling his claws extend he shows them off. “All those times when the lights are too bright, and your clothes itch, and you can hear things no one else around you can, and smell things that you shouldn’t? Those are your senses getting sharper. Your body adjusting to what you’ll have for the rest of your life, and it’s scary now, but I’ll do my best to teach you how to control it.

“Those times when you can’t stand to be apart...that’s because you’re pack, and you never abandon pack unless you have no other choice.” Maybe that’s why it was so easy for Wade to apparently throw away everything, he and Duke had never really been pack. Wade had been angry and even at eight Duke’d known he wanted to be anywhere but Haven, while Duke, Duke had been afraid of the urges in him, ones that even he could tell were not normal ones to have. They’d torn the idea of pack apart before it’d even had a chance to exist.

Before he realizes what’s happened his back’s on the floor and Jean and Daniel are atop him. And they’re crying and there’s a growing urge to break something. “Hey,” he wraps his arms around them tightly, bringing them closer. “What’s wrong?” He won’t promise that everything’s alright, because he can’t know that, and clearly something’s wrong with them.

They don’t answer right away, Duke’s okay with that. He makes comforting sounds and keeps them close, lets them get the crying out of their system, even if it makes him want to do _something_.

The crying eventually subsides and for a moment he wonders if they’ve cried themselves to sleep, but then Jean speaks up. “Does this mean we’re not weird or strange?”

“Yes!” Duke forces himself to breath deeply, he doesn’t want to scare them, anything but that. Once he’s slowed his heart down and he’s thinking clearly he lets himself speak. “You are definitely normal, for werewolves; not weird or strange at all. Who told you that you weren’t?” They might not have known they were werewolves, but no kid wanted to hear that they were ‘weird’.

“Daddy,” Daniel says quietly. “We went to see a man who was supposed to help us and he and daddy talked when we were done talking to him.” He snuffles at Duke’s neck.

His words make Duke take even more deep breaths, because what might have been private for human’s wasn’t for werewolves and...maybe his eight year old self should’ve killed Wade. He shakes that thought off almost before he’s done thinking it.

“Well your dad’s wrong, adults can do that sometimes. It’s not really his fault though, he’s sick, like he thinks you are.” At least that’s the hope, if this is self-inflicted the two of them are going to have a _very_ long conversation about responsibility, and things like condoms and vasectomies. “And I’ll have help trying to help your dad, and you both too. You remember those nice police officers who helped you?”

“Yeah,” Daniel says while Jean nods enthusiastically.

Duke feels himself relaxing a little now that they’re a little happier; although he doesn’t doubt there’s more work ahead than just teaching them how to use their abilities. “Well I’m dating both of them, so they’re like your aunt and uncle too, and they’re the best people to have on your side, if I’m not here and neither is your dad you can go to them and they’ll do their best to help you okay?”

Both of them take a few moments to take it all in, or maybe they’re just trying to figure things out; but in a way Duke’s glad they are. He wants their trust, but he knows he needs to earn it, and right now thinking over everything he says is to be expected. “Dating two people?” Well at least their old enough to understand dating.

“Yep,” Duke unwinds his hand and taps Jean lightly on the nose, glad they’re moving onto less fraught topics. “You can love a lot of people, and they definitely deserve it.”

“Does that mean we get more presents on our birthday and Christmas?” Daniel’s voice is all too serious and Duke tries hard not to laugh in response.

He squeezes them both tightly to him in a hug. “We don’t even know when your birthday is goof.” He, almost unwillingly, pulls his arms completely away. “But right now I think you two should be going to bed.”

It’s met with protests and complaints and Duke can’t help his fond smile. “I know, I know, you want to do cool stuff now. But you can’t just find everything out all at once kiddos, it’s gonna take time. And the best thing of all is to get a good night’s rest so you won’t get tired tomorrow.”

They groan and he can feel his eyes crinkling. “I’ll make it fun, I promise. And your Aunt Audrey and Uncle Nathan’ll help too.”

“Do we get to use the siren again?” Jean asks excitedly. Duke would groan, but she’s too damn eager, a shame really.

“Well that’s a question you’ll have to ask Nate, but I bet if you ask right he’ll definitely say yes.” If Nathan discovers Duke’s taught them how best to get what they want from him revenge will probably be swift, but hell, Nathan loves kids and probably wouldn’t be able to say no to them anyways. Duke’s just giving them a bit of a hand, and Nathan should love that he’s got kids he can regularly dote on.

Jean brightens even more somehow, leaning up to give his cheek a big smacking kiss. It leaves him a bit stunned as she pulls away, tugging Daniel with her. “Come on,” she tells her brother.

“But I can’t sleep now,” Daniel whines, half resisting her pull. “I wanna do cool werewolf stuff.” A smile cracks Duke’s face.

“Tomorrow,” Duke reminds them, much to Daniel’s disappointment. But he stops resisting and goes. “Want me to tuck you in?” It’s not exactly something he’s ever done before, but he thinks he’d like to try at least once.

But Jean and Daniel are already gone, their quiet padding feet and hushed voices making their way back up the stairs to their bedroom. Duke lets himself lay on the cold floor as he listens to them fall asleep. Ye Gods he hadn’t thought they’d accept the truth so easily, to be so eager to learn.

Yet he finds himself happy that they have. He can give them what he never had, make it all easier for them.

And even though Jenny didn’t turn out to be a werewolf like him it makes him sad that he never got to see her life, was never a part of it.

He thinks that, maybe, having and _raising_ kids wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Something to talk over with Nathan and Audrey at least. But that can wait for later, when everything’s blown over and the dust’s settled.

Finally he hauls himself upright and heads home.

-

Leaves and twigs crunch under his feet as he runs through the night, the world around him teeming with life and possibility. Duke would smile if a wolf’s mouth was capable of it.

On his left comes the sound of thudding paws, but he’s not afraid, he knows who it is.

Her white fur seems to glow, even with what little amount of light shines down through the trees. He slows down and nuzzles her when she approaches. She nuzzles back, before nipping at his ruff playfully, jumping back her rump and tail raised and wagging slightly, her tongue lolling. _Play?_

Internally he smiles again while his body lunges, his teeth ‘just’ missing her and she’s off like a shot, him chasing after.

After all how can he say no to Audrey wanting to play?

A familiar howl breaks their chase, and they both share a bit of a guilty look, they should have been hunting after all, not playing.

They turn towards the howl and begin to make their way towards it. Having the good fortune to at least catch a pair of rabbits on the way.

Nathan waits at the mouth of the den, golden brown fur turned dark by the lack of light, but Duke knows it like he knows Audrey’s white pelt. They all share a welcoming nosing, Nathan, ever the neat freak, helping to clean his and Audrey’s muzzles.

They’re not alone for long though, happy yips and barks make their way out of the den, followed by a hoard of pups, old enough now that their mother can help Duke hunt—which is good because Nathan’s not always the best hunter—while Nathan watches over them. The five pups tear into the rabbits, already play-fighting over who’ll get the best parts.

The three of them watch, willing to step in should they get too rambunctious, more than willing to go hungry for a night if it means the pups are fed. They’ll probably have to move the den soon, closer to where the big game is, especially with winter’s bite in the air.

But for now there’s no place Duke would rather be than here with his mates and pups, his _pack_.

Hands shake him awake, and when Duke opens his eyes it to see Audrey and Nathan staring down at him, expressions of vague worry on their faces. “Duke?” Audrey asks. “You alright? You were...barking.” Despite their obvious concern it’s clear they’re also trying not to laugh.

He can roll with it though, because he probably _did_ look kind of absurd. “I’m fine,” he sits up and pushes his hair out of his face. “Weird dream is all,” but one that makes sense considering what’s happening.

On the other hand Nathan and Audrey as wolves? He shakes his head, why on earth would he change them?

Nathan leans in across Audrey, “I kind of hope it happens again, I want video proof.”

Duke gives a playful growl and lunges, Audrey gives a laughing shriek and tries to duck out of the way. But he’s not going to let either of them get away.

-

Audrey feels sore, but in the definitely good way. And she has to fight to keep the satisfied smile off her face while she watches Duke try to teach Jean and Daniel how to climb the ratlines on the _Amphitrite_. They’re at that age where they’ll ask questions and she’d rather not tell them about the amazing sex.

“Don’t worry,” Duke cajoles a scared looking Daniel. “I’ll catch you if you fall, and your body can heal a lot, even if you don’t think it can. You’re pretty indestructible.” She’s known that Duke has a soft spot for kids—like Nathan’s soft spot for babies—but she hadn’t realized how _good_ he was with them.

Already Daniel and Jean are definitely doing better even with this being their first ‘excursion’—as they’d explained them to Wade—with Duke. All of them are still tangling with what exactly could have happened to him—it’s enough that she’s willing to ask her mother for help, on the off chance she might say yes, because if _Life_ doesn’t know what’s wrong with him well then they’re pretty screwed.

Jean’s made it to the crow’s nest and gives a little howl of triumph that cracks in the middle. Audrey doesn’t bother to hide her smile because it’s adorable and maybe she should have her phone out to take video, kiddo’s first werewolf lessons.  

Not that she could really show it to anyone. The thought takes the smile from her face.

Oh, sure, Nathan would enjoy it, and Jennifer would probably think it’s cute, as would James. But Wade would probably freak the fuck out, think Duke was putting Jean and Daniel’s lives in danger, instead of feeling pride for his kids.

She tries to shake that depressing thought, she, Duke, and Nathan’ll figure something out. Some way to help Wade, for Daniel and Jeans sakes at the very least.

-

Nathan hadn’t realized that when he’d agreed to be the police chief he’d spend most of his time being bored out of his mind.

Sure there’s paperwork to deal with and the occasional rare complaint, and the town council stuff. But overall he’s got a fat load of _nothing_.

In his vision his desk grows closer and farther away as he rolls his chair back and forth. Debating on whether to go bother Audrey and James; he could ask her how this morning went. It’s still strange that he and Audrey don’t technically work together anymore. He misses going out on cases with her, misses the feeling of satisfaction that comes from a solved case, of getting the answers to questions.

With his boredom too, comes the remembrance that something’s not right with him. And it’s not just the aftermath of his angelicness. No, this is something different and new; at least he thinks it is.

There are the headaches, but also—like with right now—he sometimes finds he gets strange tastes in his mouth, odd metallic tangs almost, but not quite, like blood or ozone. What might be even weirder is that he’s starting to pick out the _differences_ in the tangs. There are three different ones he can taste at the moment: the one closest to blood and the faintest of the three, the strongest which has a...bracing taste to it, and the third which glimmers and lures him.

He takes a sip of his bitter cold coffee to try and mask the tastes, but it’s no good, the tangs are still there, rising above everything else. Nathan knows he should tell Audrey and Duke, fuck he should just tell _someone_. But he feels _fine_ —although more than few people would claim he couldn’t accurately judge that for himself.

Maybe he should have James take a look at him, or go in for a checkup at the hospital. He sighs, maybe, maybe, maybe; he should just damn well _do_ it.

The bracing tang gets stronger and when he looks at the door Stan’s standing there. “Mayor Brody’s on the line? Want me to put him through or tell him you’re busy?” Nathan tries to hold back the smile that’s probably on his face.

“I’ll talk to him,” at least the glamour doesn’t work over the phone so he’ll actually be able to stand his ground on whatever he mayor wants to talk about. “Thanks Stan.”

“No problem,” Stan says with a smile before walking off. Less than a minute later his phone rings. “What can I do for you mayor?”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you haven't already you should go check out FK again, because my totally awesome friend made a cover for it. I'm pretty much in love.

Arla’s not exactly tense as she sits in Claire’s living room, but she is...expectant.

At first the only reason she’d gone to these get-togethers Audrey had was because Jenny had vaguely guilted her into it. Now she has to admit, at least to herself, that she goes because she enjoys them. At the very least they let her try to become more comfortable with her new extended family.

“I still think we should all try to read a book together,” it’s not exactly an argument Claire and Audrey are having, but Arla’s going to stay well out of it for now. But it is interesting to watch.

Snorting Audrey takes a drink of her wine. “Could we all even agree on a book?” So far all this has been is an excuse for all of them to relax with a glass of wine—or sparkling water in Arla’s case now—and shoot the shit.

“We could do it as a list, Kat could organize it,” Jenny pipes in. Her look to Claire’s girlfriend half-expectant.

“Oh no,” Kat vigorously shakes her head. “I do enough organizing at work, I don’t need to be saddled with more for this. One more list and I might just papercut someone to death. None of us want that.”

Arla snickers, and it’s a testament to the group that none of them give her strange looks for it.

Jenny mocks a pout. “Then we suggest books and put it to a vote? Unless we don’t want to do a book at all.” Arla thinks she could go either way, so long as she has something to distract herself—she hasn’t had anymore weird dreams thank God, but the morning sickness seems to be getting worse.

“Alright,” Audrey agrees. “Let’s at least vote whether or not we actually make something of this.” Claire rolls her eye.

Even though she doesn’t exactly mean to Arla finds herself speaking out. “Do I count as two votes since I’m carrying a baby girl?”

There’s almost a perfect moment of silence before the barrage of questions begins—which at least isn’t them physically closing in on her, although it almost feels like it. “You’re pregnant?” “How’d you know it’s a girl?” “Why didn’t you tell us when you announced it?” “Do you have a name?”

“Stop!” She calls out before they can ask a million more. The all fall quiet and back off. Closing her eyes for a moment Arla takes a deep breath. She’s okay.

“Conli told me she was a girl, but James and I didn’t want to tell anyone else just yet.” Except she’s blown that right out of the water, oh well. “We haven’t quite decided on a name yet, and we are _not_ accepting suggestions.” She knows they’d mean well, but she and James are starting fresh, which means their daughter won’t be named after _anyone_.

“Well if you want anyone to talk to you know where to find me,” Claire offers. Next to her Kat sighs and rolls her eyes. Arla’s been going to Claire off and on, but on the whole she’s uncertain about therapy, she already knows she’s screwed up, has probably been for decades. Not exactly something you could fix with an hour of talking every two weeks. On the other hand Claire’s distant enough—and that wonderful doctor-patient confidentiality—that Arla doesn’t mind sharing at least _some_ things with her.

Audrey’s the next to speak, sometimes Arla still finds herself baffled by how accepting Audrey is; it’s not naivety, if it were Arla’s certain she’d hate Audrey, but it’s just...there. Alra’s not used to such tolerance—although Arla doesn’t fool herself into thinking that if she somehow became a threat to Haven Audrey would just idly stand by. “Then I guess congratulations are in order again,” Audrey smiles. “I’m sure she’ll be a wonderful baby.”

Despite herself Arla smiles back.

-

Audrey’s not sure why Sigyn decided to stop by, only that she has. And she’s staring at Jean and Daniel like she’s seen a ghost.

The twins are suitably wary, eyeing her in askance, while she continues to stare at them. Audrey decides to step in before it gets to be a farce. “Sigyn?” She doesn’t expect her to do anything drastic, but she could be wrong, she barely knows her sister after all.

Sigyn gives a start, and takes a deep shuddering breath. “Could I perhaps trouble you for coffee or tea Audrey, I…” She shivers and Audrey shares a confused look with Duke and Nathan.

“Sure,” gently she ushers her into Nathan’s kitchen and starts up his fancy coffee maker—one of Duke’s Christmas presents—getting down mugs. “Cream, sugar?” The cop part of her wants to dive in and ask what’s wrong, but she forces herself to hold off, Sigyn’s clearly shaken by _something_ , and pushing now might just get her to clam up.

“Cream yes,” Sigyn responds absently, her eyes definitely staring at something only she can probably see.

She sets the cream next to her, and a mostly full mug of coffee when the pot beeps. Her eyes watch as Sigyn picks up the cream and pours in enough to make the coffee look like hot chocolate, Audrey judges a little, but she probably shouldn’t considering the syrups she buys for Nathan.

After a few moments of quiet, except for the occasional sound from the living room—Duke must have changed the lesson, they’d been quite rowdy before Sigyn got there—she decides to go for it. “You alright?” Always a good opening question, get the person to talk about themselves; she gave herself a mental shake, she’s not going to treat this like an interview.

“Yes, I just…” Sigyn sips her coffee, the move far more delicate than it should be. “I didn’t expect to see…” Her eyes blink rapidly and Audrey thinks she might be trying not to cry, which makes Audrey want to know even more, she makes herself stare at her own coffee.

“They look so much like my boys…” The sound of ceramic shattering forces Audrey to look up, and at least Sigyn looks sheepish as she clutches the handle of her former mug. “Apologies.”

“You have kids?” Audrey asks neutrally as she goes to get a towel to clean up the coffee before it stains, while it soaks up the liquid she gets the broom and dustpan.

“Had,” Sigyn’s voice sounds so sad as she steps out of Audrey’s way. “If I told you that Loke and I were happy, I wouldn’t be lying. But our marriage has been very...fraught and difficult since it’s consummation. We were so happy when I found out. And they were beautiful in that wrinkled, squalling way babies are.”

Audrey hands her a new mug with more coffee, but after filling it with cream Sigyn sets it on the counter, probably not trusting herself with it.

“They took to the lessons Loke and I taught them well, almost too well Loke would sometimes say, but we were still proud, they were clever and wonderful and what more could we ask for?” Sigyn’s fingers twist around each other, skin white from the pressure. “Then Loke, well, did what he did best and his adoptive family was as displeased as always. But they decided a much...harsher punishment was needed this time.”

Audrey feels her heart squeeze in her chest. “You don’t need to tell me this Sigyn.” She moves to stand next to her and rubs her shoulder, giving her an out if she wants it. Sometimes things are too awful to talk about.

“You should,” Sigyn’s voice is whisper soft, and so very tired. “Especially your Duke,” her smile is wan. “I should have seen it before. He has Vali’s eyes.”

Clearly Duke hears that, because there’s a brief flurry of sound and soon after she hears Daniel and Jean cheer, only to be cut off by the back door closing. Seconds later Duke’s joining them, “Nathan’s taking the kids to the tidepools.” Meaning they’ll have more than enough time to talk about this, whatever it is. Audrey manages a smile when Duke’s hand squeezes over hers in comfort, and she hands her coffee off to him when he starts to tug it from her.

Sigyn leans more against the counter, her eyes closing as she begins to speak again, her voice taking on an odd cadence. “He ran from them, terrified by their anger, having no idea what about this time was so different from the times before. He turned himself into a salmon and they threw a net across the river, he turned himself into a deer and they send hounds to chase him, he turned himself into a tree and they sent a woodsman to cut him down.

“And so they caught him and passed judgement. ‘You spoke ill of us shape-changer, and broke the laws of hospitality. And so this is your punishment.’

“I watched as they took my beautiful boys. I had struggled and fought but Thor’s might held me, backed by Freya’s magic, I was as helpless as my Loki.

“Odin looked at my boys and spoke a word.

“Nothing happened to Vali, but Nari shivered and shook. His body began to twist and contort itself, taking on a new shape as the All-father’s magic changed him.

“He turned into a wolf, scared and afraid he did what all wolves do when cornered with no way out.”

Sigyn’s crying for real now, and Audrey finds herself turning to hug her, unsurprised when Sigyn clings. “I couldn’t watch, I couldn’t see one son kill the other, I loved them too much.” Audrey finds herself blinking back tears of her own; how could _anyone_ do that to a child?

“Nari ran when it was over. But it was not the end for Loki and I, we clearly had not suffered enough. They took Vali’s intestines and bound Loki with them deep under the earth, they placed a serpent above his eyes, it’s venom dripping into them, eating away...nothing in the world can bring those eyes back, just like nothing can bring my boys back to me.”

“Sigyn,” Conli’s voice breaks the spell, and Audrey decides to at least try not to bother with what her mother’s doing here, or how she got in.

Audrey lets go of Sigyn, who goes to Conli and is taken up into another hug, Audrey doesn’t feel jealous, but there is an odd pang in her for how different their relationship is from her own to Conli. “Sleep dear victory,” Conli smooths Sigyn’s hair away from her face. “Dream of your revenge.”

Like magic, and perhaps it is, Sigyn’s body relaxes. “I broke them free,” Conli picks up the story as if it’s nothing at all. “Although it was far too late to have kept them wholly from harm...Had I been in this universe I would have stopped it, but…” Conli drifts off, then gives her head a small shake. “While Loki and Sigyn recovered I sought out Nari, he deserved better than what he had been given, and I could at least do that for him.

“I found him, and was not surprised by the guilt he felt. He begged me to take his memories, to make him into a new man, so that he could try to live again. And to not tell his parents, because he knew it would break their hearts.

“I did as he asked, but left him as part wolf. He could not change, but the children his wife bore him could, they were the first mortal werewolves.” Conli’s copper eyes stare into Duke, and Audrey presses closer to him.

“And again I was called away for a task I could not refuse and Odin uncovered what I had done. In his anger he laid a curse on the family. A hundred years I was gone, long enough for the curse to become blood and bone, to work it’s way into their DNA, werewolves were mortal back then, living the short lives all humans did. Too much time had passed for me to change that.”

“What was the curse?” The tone in Duke’s voice suggests he might already know and Audrey doesn’t know whether to be angry or curious.

Conli shifts Sigyn slightly. “Firstly that the line should only produce male children, although some would call that a blessing. But the second would prove them wrong. For should someone of Nari’s line have more than one male child...the younger would ever strive to kill the elder.” Conli’s eyes are knowing as they stare at Duke. “Just as Nari slew Vali.

“I could not break the curse,” Conli continues as if she hasn’t just dropped a huge bombshell, but Audrey’s come to expect that from her mother. “But I did what I could, longer lives, fewer children, keeping some of my bloodline’s gifts alive. For a thousand years it worked.” Her lips curl into a smile. “You chose well Evander when you courted Maggie, Mara may have given up most of her powers to become Haven’s Lar, but curse-breaking, well, that would have come as easy as breathing to her.”

Duke doesn’t seem relieved by that however, not that Audrey’s sure she is either. “I still want to kill him,” Duke doesn’t sound happy about it. Audrey doesn’t exactly blame him; killing your own brother...that’s serious stuff, even if you don’t apparently have a choice.

Conli blinks, then shakes her head. “Ah it seems I misspoke, the curse is broken for future generations, should you and Audrey have children they will feel no urges to kill Jennifer, young Daniel will feel no urges to kill Jean. Odin no longer has a hold of them, you will be the last,” she shrugs and scoops up Sigyn with care.

“Wait,” Audrey finds herself stepping towards Conli as she turns to leave. ‘That’s it, you’re just going to leave? Something’s wrong with Wade, he doesn’t remember what he is, we need your help.”

Conli stops, but she doesn’t turn around. “I know, but I can do nothing to change the past, Wade has made his deal and he must live with it’s consequences, even if he does not know them. As for the curse what more can I do than I have already? Either Duke will kill Wade as his ancestors have done before or he will do as he once did and leave, postponing the inevitable.

“But I will give you a word of warning, beware your dreams, they’ll cost more than you’re willing to give.”

And like that she vanishes, giving Audrey yet another reason to be annoyed at her—she should probably just stop keeping track at this point honestly.

“Duke?” Making sure he’s alright definitely ranks higher than being annoyed with Conli. She rests a hand on his arm, being there if he wants her.

He turns and sweeps her up, she gladly lets him, wrapping her own arms around him while he buries his face in her hair. “Not, not exactly what I was expecting to hear.” Audrey bites back her comments, they’re not what Duke needs right now. “Gods,” a short laugh leaves him. “I guess for real. Not sure how I’m gonna help Daniel and Jean if we can’t have Wade here, can’t really fix Wade either.”

“Duke,” her tone turns slightly chastising. “Less worrying about your brother and his kids and more worrying about yourself okay?” she runs her fingers through his hair. “ _You_ need to be alright before thinking about looking after anyone else.” At least on that front she and Nathan can band together to make sure it happens.

A shuddering breath leaves him. “I love you,” she has to strain to hear him say it, not that she really needs too. Out of everything _that_ is never really in any doubt.

“I love you too,” tugging his hair she pulls his head away from her so she can look him in the eye. “I’m gonna call Nathan and tell him to take the kids back to Wade, you’re gonna go curl up in bed, and I’m gonna make you some of that tea you like.” She keeps her voice firm, letting Duke know she’s not going to take any arguing. “When Nathan gets back we’re gonna cuddle and talk about this and yes, try to figure something out. But only after we’ve made sure you’re alright.”

She pecks his cheek before giving him a light shove. “Now go, and if I hear you doing anything other than getting into bed I might have to tie you up.” As a threat it’s half-hearted at best, but she doesn’t mean it seriously.

“Alright, alright,” the smile on Duke’s face is worth it. “And here I thought Nathan was the only one who’d get tied up in this relationship.”

She rolls her eyes as she gets out her phone and makes a shooing gesture with her hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as the saying goes, shit has gotten real.


	8. Chapter 8

Duke trots after Audrey as the make their way down the shore, the ocean lapping at the sand a foot below them. Behind him Nathan follows—the pups are old enough to leave on their own now, hopefully they won’t get into too much trouble—the both of them taking their lead from Audrey. She’s from the north after all she’s the one who’s done salmon hunting before—before he romanced her from her pack into his not-yet-a-pack.

As the come upon where river meets ocean Audrey’s ear twitches and he and Nathan pause. They’re not the only one’s who’ve decided to come.

Bears, and eagles too.

The eagles aren’t worrying, but the bears are.

Next to him Nathan tenses, a low rumble coming from his chest. One of the bears turns it’s attention to them. Turning around Audrey snaps her teeth at Nathan, a very clear ‘knock it off’. There might be three of them, but they definitely couldn’t take on a bear.

She turns back around and he can see her head move as she inspects the lay of the land. A moment later she starts moving again, heading slightly further inland. It means the bears get first pick, but Duke’s fine with that.

The water’s icy cold around his paws as they step into the shallows of the river, the snowmelt just another promise of spring. Nuzzling Audrey he flicks water at Nathan, giving the best smile he can when Nathan yelps.

Audrey huffs and moves to lay down on the shore, clearly wanting no part in their fooling around.

Nathan leaps on him and they begin a playful tussle, teeth and claws hitting but not breaking skin. Playing at trying to mount the other and probably showing off a little for Audrey, who appears nonplussed, but he sees the way her eyes watch them.

Getting the upper hand Nathan shoves him into slightly deeper water—still not deep enough to whisk him away though—and now Duke’s the one yelping as his fur gets soaked. Something slithers past him and he leaps up, whirling around to try and see what it was.

Salmon.

Even with the bears before them, it’s still more fish than Duke can count.

Showing off her teeth in an impressive yawn Audrey finally stands and joins them. Her eyes sliding from side to side as she watches the fish move.

There’s so many of them that Duke thinks it should be child’s play to get them. Bracing himself for the cold he ducks under the water, teeth snapping at the nearest fish. Only for him to surface empty-mouthed.

Nathan gives a panting laugh, but when he tries he fails just as much as Duke did.

Audrey gives a shake of her head and flicks her ears, before standing stock still. The wait almost grows to be too much before she acts, a paw and her head darting into the water, a nice fat salmon in her jaws when she comes back up.

Smug pride radiating from her she goes back to the shore and sets the salmon down. An eagle gets too close and she chases it off. Only to have to chase off a raven when it lands on the fish. He and Nathan join her, and before he knows it he’s being designated ‘fish-watcher’, which is clearly unfair, but Audrey just gives him a look and he settles in for the most boring job. But at least he’s not getting wet anymore.

And it’s fun to watch Nathan keep failing at fishing, at least until he isn’t.

With a soft sort of groan Duke wakes up, but at least this time he doesn’t seem to have woken anyone else up with his weird dreams. He’s sandwiched between Audrey and Nathan, so he moves carefully to sit up.

It’s the second one this week and they’re starting to weird him out, more with how _nice_ they seem than the actual content.

Still, living _as_ wolves?

 _‘It could be yours,’_ something in him says. _‘Just say the word.’_

But why would he? He likes his ‘old man’ sweaters—he love-hates that Nate and Audrey only ever call them that now—having opposable thumbs, eating cooked food. Why would he trade all of that for becoming a wolf, for turning Audrey, Nathan, and who knows else into one with him?

And why the fuck would he do it without _asking_ them if that’s what they wanted?

Something like a sigh breezes through him, and he feels himself feeling lighter.

With a sigh of his own, although more pleased than disappointed, he settles back down in his spot, tangling his legs with Nathan as he closes his eyes and making sure to reach behind him to pull Audrey closer.

 _This_ is all he’ll ever really need.

-

Nathan twists and turns in his sleep, dreams strange and unusual plaguing him.

He, Duke, and Audrey in a church, their hands atop one another, gold rings winking between their interlocked fingers...

...air rushing around and through him as he flies, the world impossibly colorful and full of such glories that he hadn’t seen in ages, he laughed…

...fire spilling from his mouth, the air trembling from the heat of it…

...a baby in his arms, perfect and _his_ …

...Audrey and Duke, curled around each other on a blanket while the sun beat down on them, the cooler is heavy in his arms as he goes towards them, sand tickling his feet…

...gold like candy in his mouth…

...air rushing around him as his wings beat, heavy and powerful, laugher comes from behind him and he turns his head to see Duke and Audrey on his shoulders…

...a strange sound of annoyance, a frustrated snarl, and a voice. “What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?”

He jerks upright, his body trembling as his heart races in his chest. The fuck? Next to him Audrey makes a questioning sound, half-awake. Reaching out he rests a hand on her shoulder. “I’m okay,” he murmurs, trying to encourage her back to sleep.

She goes.

Slipping out of bed sensation leaves him, it hardly even bothers him anymore as he pads to the bathroom, sparing one last look at Duke and Audrey, the two of them curled around and tangled up in each other, so perfect it’s probably making him ache. Turning back around he leaves the bedroom.

Turning on the bathroom light he stares at his reflection for a few moments, he doesn’t look any different. Didn’t really feel any different before he’d left the bed either. Yet the dream still lingers, _‘what the fuck is wrong with you?’_

With a shake of his head, Audrey had mentioned yesterday that Conli told them not to trust their dreams, he reaches over and turns on the shower. He knows he’s not going to be able to get back to sleep after being woken up like that, so he might as well get ready.

Even if he can’t feel the heat of the water there’s something relaxing about stepping into the shower; although he’ll admit it’s much nicer when Audrey or Duke are with him.

His mind stumbles over that for a few seconds. He’d only wondered off and on why he could also feel Duke’s touch, and less now that they were together. But in all his wonderings he’d never thought it was because Duke was a descendant of Conli’s, however distant.

Yet it’s surprisingly easy to accept, if still somewhat mind boggling. And does it really matter now that they knew? As he soaps up his loofah he thinks maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t change who Duke is after all, it just gives him more of his history. Gives _context_.

The smell of vanilla and oats gets stronger and he realizes he’s given himself far too much soap. With a small sigh he puts the soap back and gets to scrubbing, after this he’ll start coffee and breakfast, which’ll at least wake Audrey up. Nathan doesn’t know if Duke’s got another lesson with the twins or not, so he might just be a lazy ass all day; although part of Nathan likes the idea coming back home to a still warm bed and a sleep tousled Duke.

Something catches his eye and he pauses, turns his right arm towards him. Narrows his eyes at his elbow, like it will help him see better.

It’s, well, it kind of looks like a patch of scales. Even though he won’t be able to feel it he still touches it, certain there’s a frown on his face. The hell?

One of the edges comes up as his fingers rub at it, and when he goes over it a few times with the loofah it comes off, hitting the floor of the shower with a wet plop. He looks down at it, he’s definitely confused, where the hell had that come from? Some weird gag by Audrey or Duke?

Possible he knew, but the little teases and jokes they usually played on him were more designed to make him blush, not confuse him. Well he wouldn’t know until he asked them.

Putting it aside for now he finishes washing up, finding no other odd scaly patches. As he steps out of the shower he picks up the patch from the ground and just decides to throw it in the trash, keeping it would just be weird.

He heaves an annoyed sigh when he realizes he didn’t bring clothes in with him. Wrapping the towel around him he goes into the kitchen to start the coffee, then goes to get dressed; smiling again at seeing Duke and Audrey right where they’d been.

-

Duke doesn’t know why he invited Wade onto the _Rouge_. Maybe guilt at what he’d had to do to Wade. Maybe to know he wasn’t the only one caught up in this fucked up destiny—even if Wade is oblivious to it.

Either way Wade’s here, taking in everything with a reserved sort of surprise. “From the outside I would have thought the insides would be a wreck too.”

He would bristle, except that’s what he wants people to think, that the _Rouge_ is nothing more than a rusty hunk of junk—hey if it worked for Han Solo… It’s served him well for the past few decades, both in this world and others. “You want something to drink?” Duke needs something to do with his hands, a task to distract him from Wade. This was a horrible idea.

“Whiskey sour?” Wade asks.

“I can do that,” this isn’t the bar at the Gull, but Duke would cut off a hand before he even contemplated the idea of owning an understocked bar, or kitchen.

As he mixes his listens to Wade wandering around the stateroom, probably looking at all the art Duke has on the walls. “You’ve certainly been places.”

A snort leaves him. “What can I say, I stepped on that first boat and never looked back.” Duke’s not sure if that’s the best decision he’s _ever_ made, but getting out of Haven at the time probably was the best thing he could have done. Who knows what might have happened if he’d stayed. Wade would probably be dead, a part of him pointed out.

“Christ Duke,” he feels grateful that Wade’s at least accepted that. “You were eight, I’m surprised any boat took you.” Right, because Wade thinks their childhood was the 80s, not the 1700s—or in Duke’s case 1800s.

“You’d be surprised,” back then no one’d really cared, he was just another boy eager to run away to the sea—except he’d succeeded and made something of himself. “Ship life was good for me. At least with the captain I knew what I was getting a beating for.” If he had his way they wouldn’t be talking about this at all, but Wade seems adamant.

He hands Wade’s whiskey sour to him and flops onto the couch with his own drink. Wade downs his all in one go and if Duke’d known his hard work was going to go _that_ unappreciated he wouldn’t have tried to made it good. “Was dad really that bad? I mean he was tough, but…”

Duke’s laugh is humorless; seems not even Wade’s fake memories can try and excuse Simon Crocker. “Yeah, he was.” Bad enough that the servants did their best to stay out of it, they might have been fond of Duke, but Simon paid them and could have them thrown out—the most they could do was look the other way when Duke was escaping. “Don’t pity me Wade, I don’t regret my life at all.” Now more than ever.

“If you’d told me…”

“What?” Duke snaps. “You would have tried to stop him?” Unlikely considering the era, it hadn’t been like today when that was considered abuse. “You were hardly ever home Wade, so don’t make it out to be you’re the injured party and that I didn’t trust you.” Duke slams back his own drink and gets up. “I’ll be right back.” He needs even just a few more feet of space, anything to help him calm down. Anger means he might actually act on their curse.

Tucked away in his tiny bathroom Duke leans his head against the cold metal of the walls. Closing his eyes he takes the deepest breaths he can, hoping to at least center himself, just a little. He can’t exactly do yoga here, but he does pull away from the wall and stretches, straining his body until his fingers touch the ceiling. Exhaling he relaxes.

It’s not exactly a charitable thought but he wants Wade gone. Out of the _Rouge_ and out of Haven.

The problem is that if Wade leaves, so do Jean and Daniel, and Duke knows he can’t abandon them when they’ve just started learning about themselves. Duke may have had to muddle through, but he won’t let them follow in his footsteps that way, not if he can help it. At the very least they certainly deserve better.

Splashing some water on his face Duke takes a few more deep breaths. He can endure Wade and his altered mind for their sakes at least. But that doesn’t mean he has to deal with his brother any more than absolutely necessary.

Resolved Duke leaves the bathroom, Wade’s gotten up too, staring at one of the paintings Nathan gave him as a Christmas present. “I’d like you to leave,” look, he could totally be an adult about this.

Wade looks at him, hurt and surprise swirling around him. “What?”

“Look,” this is exactly what Duke doesn’t want, especially after yesterday. “I’m just...I don’t like my childhood and would rather just forget I had it. So if you want to reminisce then you can go find mom and dad’s coffins in the mausoleum and talk to those.” At least that had the bonus of being true, even in the context of Wade’s false memories. “But I’m not going shoot the breeze with you about that. I’ll stop by in the morning to pick up Daniel and Jean.” None too subtly he begins to usher Wade out the door.

“Duke…” if it had been concern in Wade’s voice Duke’s pretty sure he would have broken something, as it is the disappointment is pushing it. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”

Closing his eyes, good thing he could navigate the _Rouge_ blind, Duke took more deep breaths to keep from snarling. “And I’m sorry your perfect little life blew up in your face,” he manages to surprise himself with how that barely sounds sarcastic at all. “You have a good day Wade.”

He doesn’t quite shove Wade out the door but it’s close. And it’s almost a relief to close the hatch.

Going back into the stateroom Duke picks up their glasses and goes to clean them. Opening up all the portholes to let in as much fresh air as he can. The sooner he can get the smells of Wade out of here the better.


	9. Chapter 9

Wade’s head hurts, it’s a near constant thing now.

The first he’d felt it he’d only thought it a hangover, after all he’d hadn’t exactly been moderate that night at the Gull, so he’d popped some advil and it’d gone away about an hour later.

But it came back.

He lays in bed, the ropes holding the feather tick up groaning slightly as he rolls onto his side. His phone on the bedside table tells him it’s almost nine, and he’s grateful the curtains are new enough that they’re keeping the sun out. Maybe he’s catching whatever Jean and Daniel have, he’d certainly spent enough time around them on the drive up. It would explain why his eyes sometimes hurt, and maybe the headaches too.

On the other hand it could be living in his childhood home again. It’s certainly disconcerting enough. Realizing that this...shack—even if it was a really _nice_ one—is where he’d been born, where Duke had been born, where his mother died, and dad. He doesn’t really remember it ever being a happy place.

Maybe he should have tried to take Duke with him when he left, even though Wade’d gone into the army. It would have been better than this.

But for some reason he hadn’t, and then when he’d come back when dad died Duke wouldn’t stop _staring_ at him, it’d been eerie and unsettling to always have those brown eyes on him. Not that he’d had to live with it long, because almost right after the funeral was done Duke had up and vanished. Never to be seen by Wade again.

It should probably worry Wade that he hadn’t been all that concerned when it happened, hadn’t called the police, or even told anyone. He _should_ have done all of that, yet he hadn’t. Duke’d been _eight_ and he just let him go.

Christ, he rubs the bridge of his nose as the pounding in his head somehow gets worse. With a groan he sits up, wondering if he even _has_ any painkillers left. Well if he doesn’t he can just go out and get more. Although going into town is a lot more involved than talking a walk to the corner bodega.

It’s a no on the painkillers, biting back a sigh he dresses, slipping on his copper wedding band—he’s not sure why he still wears it when he and Marie divorced almost a year ago. On his way out he peeks in on his kids, only to find them gone.

Meandering down to the kitchen he finds a note on the battered coffee pot sitting on the wood stove, Duke’s handwriting is unmistakable after a few days and he’s just happy that his brother’s at least taking him seriously and trying to help Daniel and Jean.

Well with them to not worry about he heads out.

Pills and water acquired he pops a few and takes a drink of the water. It’s a nice summer day out, and at least the light doesn’t make his eyes ache. Realizing he should probably try and be a normal person he decides to take a walk on the beach; sure New York went along the Atlantic, but it never felt like it, you always worried more about the rivers than the ocean.

He doesn’t know how long he walks, but it’s nice, clears his head. He finds himself going up to the small park between the beach and downtown and takes a seat on a bench. His eyes close as a wave of exhaustion comes over him.

“Hey buddy,” a hand on his shoulder shakes him awake. Blearily he blinks at the man who’d woken him.

“Did I fall asleep?” He hadn’t meant to, but he must have. He’s definitely coming down with something.

The man at least gives him a kindly smile. “Sure did, don’t think you should make a habit of it though.”

Wade nods and slowly gets up as the man and his dog walk away. Maybe he should go back to the hospital, get a check-up. Then again the docs here clearly missed something the first time he’d gone in, so they obviously weren’t the best—in a small town like this they probably don’t need to be, and Bangor is close enough for any real emergencies. Maybe he should go there, see if they can find anything.

He staggers back to his car, glad that at least Duke’s looking after the kids. For being a weird-ass kid he’s grown up alright and Wade knows he’ll do right by them. Wade certainly can’t at the moment.

-

Jenny sits up in a tree, legs dangling from the branch as she waits for her cousins—weird, but cool—to try and find her. So far it’s been fun, even if she’s not werewolves like they are—and okay she is kind of jealous even with her own awesome powers—she’s still learning a lot and enjoying the experience.

It also gives her some time to think without having to also worry about work and other things.

She and Dwight’d made up just like she’d known they would, and had a nice long chat about boundaries and wants, and while it’d been tiring it’d also been satisfying as hell.

“Found you!” Looking down Jenny sees Daniel staring up at her from the ground.

Swinging her legs she grins. “Yep, sure did. But you gotta still come up here and take my hat.” She’d been confused when Duke’d called her this morning and after explaining what he needed her for had tacked on for her to bring a hat. It makes sense now, but still kind of weird.

Daniel stares at her for a few moments, like he’s hoping she’ll just drop the hat for him; but fat chance of that, she’s got her orders, just like he’s got his. He’s gotta come up and get this himself. “Come on,” she cajoles. “It’s easy.” She’s certainly climbed higher herself when she’d been his age. Threshing season had been the best, all those huge piles of hay to jump into from the barn roof.

“Fine,” he says with a gusty sigh that’s kind of adorable. She watches as he starts climbing, making sure he won’t suddenly lose his grip and start falling.

He reaches her branch but clings to the trunk. “Is this enough?”

She takes pity on him. “Sure,” she agrees, sliding over to hand him the hat. “Don’t like heights?”

Daniel nods. “Jean says it’s stupid because we live on like the tenth floor of the building, but that’s different.”

“Well you’re right on that part,” She swings a leg over so that both are on the same side. “I don’t like spiders,” she tells him. “They’re just…” she wiggles her fingers. “Ookie.” Proof that she’s been hanging around Lizzie too often—now there’s a thought, introducing Jean and Daniel to Lizzie.

A weak laugh leaves him and she counts it as a win. “So how about I climb down first and then you can jump on me?”

“Falling’s scary,” he says.

“Yep it is,” Jenny leans in a little closer. “But you know what? It’s kind of fun too, because it’s scary.” She’s not going to try and talk him out of his fear, but she’ll give him a nudge or two to take some risks; he’s a kid, that’s pretty much the best time for it. She holds out a pinky. “I promise I’ll catch you.”

He stares at her finger for a few seconds before linking his pinky with hers. “Okay.”

Giving him a smile Jenny pushes herself off the branch, her arms still holding on until her feet get a good purchase on the one below her. From there it’s an easy climb to the ground. Putting herself in the right spot she calls up. “Okay, now I want you to sit on the branch, right next to the trunk, and just push off whenever you’re ready. And if you change your mind I’ll come up and help you climb down alright?” She’s holding her arms out, but not too far, she’ll only be using them to guide him towards her body.

It’s hard to see but Daniel nods, and moves so that he’s sitting on the branch, the hat flopping over his ears.

About two minutes pass with him not jumping and she calls out again. “Come on Daniel, you’ve got to make a choice. If Jean finds you she can steal the hat from you. You’ve got to take it to Duke for it to count.”

Which finally seems to get his ass in gear, and she finds herself taking a deep breath as he pushes off giving a brief shriek as he does so. She has to take a step to the side, but she manages to catch him just like she promised, his weight pushing her over to fall on the ground—which she’d expected.

“Did you enjoy it?” She asks as she helps him stand up then getting herself back up on her own feet.

“It was scary,” Daniel answers, his hand grabbing her arm and pulling her towards a part of the Brambles that looks like just the rest. “I don’t know if I really enjoyed it.”

She bites back a smile. “Well that’s alright, you tried it. Now lets see if we can get to Duke before your sister finds us.”

-

Audrey crouches next to the tarp spread over the body, grimacing when she lifts it up and stares at what’s underneath. It’s in so many pieces she’s not sure she can _call_ it a body anymore. She certainly doesn’t want to be in Eleanor’s shoes when they bring it in.

James’ by the cordon, interviewing people in the hopes of getting something they can use. At the far edge of things she can see Vince and Dave lurking, clearly wanting a scoop; even though it’s been months since the Barn she’s still not feeling too charitable towards them—even if Dave is reason Duke, Nathan and the others were able to find her—thankfully she doesn’t have to cross their path unless she wants to.

Letting the tarp fall, it’s not like _she’s_ going to get anything out of staring at it, she closes her eyes and breathes, hoping that she’ll be able to get at least _something_ from the area itself, this is still Haven after all, still _her_ domain. It might be strange to think it, but it’s something that’s an inescapable fact—and at least here in Haven psychic impressions were admissible in court, to a certain extent at least.

She feels the sand shift as the waves move in and out, feel the difference between the blood and the sand it’s seeping into. Nothing tells her who the body was, but she does manage to get an impression of terror.

Opening her eyes she holds back a brief sigh. Not as much help as she’d hoped. The worst thing is she _knows_ Haven, the parts that are not _her_ and could vaguely be considered sentient, _wants_ to help her. But a town, despite idioms and sayings, didn’t really have eyes with which to see with. It could only do so much.

Rocking back on her heels she does her best to think without getting too invested.

Well they at least know the attacker’s supernatural, not even a human trying to make the kill look supernatural could do that to a person, they just didn’t have enough strength.

Maybe something from the Brambles? Although if that was the case there should have been some some sighting reports. A fairy? They _could_ make themselves hard to see, but while they kidnapped, _killing_ a Havenite is serious business; one that might be enough to break the agreement they have, no the Queen wouldn’t let any of her subjects do anything so reckless. It might be worth it to talk to her on the other hand, once Eleanor’d finished her report. But still, Audrey expects Haven to have given her more than that if either of those things were the case.

“Audrey?” James’ voice pulls her from her thoughts and she gives a little shake of her head as she looks up at him. He’s holding a hand out to help her up, “dad’s here.”

She knows that a murder like this is enough to warrant the chief’s attention, but she’s also sure Nathan jumped at the chance to do police-work again. Taking James’ hand she hauls herself upright, “thanks. Get anything useful?”

James shakes his head. “No one seems to have seen anything. The guy who called it in only found it thanks to his dog.” It’s not unexpected, but there’s always the possibility.

He jogs to catch up as she heads to Nathan, “should we be worried?” He at least has the sense to say it quietly so no one should overhear, creating a panic is the last thing they need right now. But he has a good point, it could be a one off thing, still horrible, but manageable; or it could be just the start, in which case there _will_ be a panic, and more than a few eyes looking to her to put an end to it.

“I don’t know,” it galls her to admit it, but it’s true. Right now they’re just going to have to do their best to figure it out with what they have. It might not be what they want, but it’s what they’ve got.

Nathan looks properly grave as he watches the other cops work. “How bad is it?” He at least gives her a faint smile in greeting, but right now they all need to be in work mode.

“Pretty bad,” she answers. “Body’s all torn up and in pieces.”

“Dog walker found the body about fifteen minutes ago, and considering it’s still seeping blood I’d guess the body’s pretty fresh itself.” James adds. And at least Audrey’s got a strong stomach. “No one seems to have seen anything, or heard anything for that matter.”

“Great,” she bites back a smile at Nathan’s annoyance. “Like our personal problems weren’t already a full plate. Thoughts?”

She and James share a quick look of debate, then she answers. “Definitely not human. I don’t know the Brambles as well as Haven,” while it’s considered part of Haven by the state of Maine, it’s not by whatever power determines her domain. “But it could be something from there. Maybe a transient,” this is high tourist season after all. “I don’t know.”

Nathan sighs. “Alright, I’ll call up Dwight then, see if he might have an idea. You both head back to the station, make sure you’re there when Eleanor’s done.”

“I’ll call Duke too,” it’s likely it’s slipped Nathan’s mind with him so focused on the problem at hand. “Otherwise he’ll worry.” Actually she wouldn’t be surprised if when she and James got to the station he’d be there waiting for them, even if he’s currently in the Brambles teaching.

“Right,” Nathan’s smile is wan. “Looks like those late nights got here sooner than we’d hope.”

She smiles wanly back and pats his shoulder as she passes. “Love you,” she tells him.

He doesn’t respond, but she doesn’t expect, or need, him too.

“You might want to call and tell Arla,” she tells James as they get into her car. “Give her a warning.” Things might still be a bit rocky between the two of them, but it’s gotten smoother over the months and that’s enough for Audrey.

“Yeah,” James sounds shaken as he pulls out his phone. She knows this isn’t the first time he’s seen a dead body, but sometimes you just never get used to it. Part of Audrey hopes he never does really.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you'll notice that I added another chapter to the total, it's not that I wrote more, but decided to split up a longer chapter into two parts, because I'm evil like that (you'll see).
> 
> OTOH, now that Our Bones, is finished updates of RF will be every week now!

There’s a table before her, and Audrey finds herself frowning at it.

Cards, in a three by four rectangle, are laid out on it. They remind her of tarot cards, although they certainly don’t look like any she’s ever seen—and she’s seen a lot thanks to one of the employees at the new age shop in Haven being turned invisible, she’d been afraid all she’d dream of was indecent exposure reports when it was over. The art style is mostly the same, as are the poses, but each card is different from the others.

The one on the bottom right, which looks the newest out of all of them, is a woman with shortish brown hair in a watery blue dress, in her hands she holds a large water pitcher, in perfect copperplate at the bottom it says **The Bearer**.

Next to it is **The Needle** , a redhaired woman in crisp white, a syringe in her hands, held in front of her like Audrey’d seen knights do in some art, making it almost look like a strange cross.

She finds her gaze pulled up to the upper left, to the oldest card, the color’s faded with age, and the edges have started to go ragged, but the details are still clear: a woman in green with blonde hair, her hands are empty but held out as if she’s asking for help—there’s something familiar about her—in the same copperplate it reads **The Tree.**

Without really meaning too Audrey reaches out and brushes her fingers against the cheek of the woman.

_She’s on a beach, there’s no sun, but the sky is bright with daylight and a cloudless blue. Waves shush against the golden sand. A woman all in white is curled up in a chair, a faint breeze blowing around white strands of her hair that have escaped her coiffure._

_“Mama, mama,” a girl in a worn dress runs towards Conli, her arms full of something sparkly and iridescent. “Look what I found!” Her blonde hair is unbound and streams behind her like a long banner._

_Conli smiles at the little girl as she stops in front of her. “Well, that is quite the octopus you’ve found my little apple.”_

_The girl nods, but it’s a little sad, “but I think he’s dead mama.” She rocks back on her heels for a second, clutching the octopus closer to her. “Why do things die?”_

_A wan smile crosses Conli’s face, one filled with sadness and love. “Things die so that new things can be made. There has to be a balance you see, new things make the world interesting, but old things make you appreciate the new. Too much creation and it all becomes a blur, too much of the old and the world becomes a dull place indeed. But,” Conli reaches out and brushes her fingers against the octopus’ skin. “I think this time we’ll break the rules a little,” she says it in a conspiratorial whisper that makes the little girl giggle._

_In her arms the octopus begins wiggling and writhing. Just as suddenly a very large tank appears next to them, the girl tosses the octopus into it and presses her hands and face against the glass as the octopus begins swimming around and exploring it’s new home, vanishing into a rocky alcove. “I’m gonna name him Philipe.”_

Audrey jerks her hand away, her heart pounding in her chest. She wraps her arms around her, feeling chilled and unsure.

The chill dies away as Audrey wakes up, two bodies throwing off heat like no one’s business pressed up against either side of her.

Slowly she sits up, not wanting to disturb Duke or Nathan, a slight frown on her face. What an odd dream.

The woman had definitely been Conli, no mistake about that, but did that mean the girl was Mara? Sigyn's a redhead and is Conli’s only other daughter, so it made sense. And it isn’t that hard to get that the Needle and the Bearer were Sarah and Lucy.

But what did it all mean?

Is she gaining her past memories back somehow? Some last vestige of the Barn spell finally dying away and this is what she gets in return?

If so then why the cards? Why the symbolism? Why wouldn’t she just be getting the memories back all at once or in some sort of buildup? She gives a little shake of her head, it’s too early to be thinking this hard.

Carefully she leans over Nathan to the bedside table where the both of them keep notepads—a fact Duke grouses about constantly—and pencils. Squinting like it’ll make her see better she jots down all she can remember for future reference. Because whatever might be happening is important, she’s at least pretty sure about that.

She pauses though, recalling Conli’s warning. And now she feels torn. Before she’d told William she had no interests in her pasts selves, that they didn’t matter. Which is true, but there still is a bit of curiosity, a tiny urge to know who they were and what they were like.

But perhaps Conli is right and it was a trap or trick of some sort.

Biting back a groan, she exhales slowly. She’s going to think herself into a headache if she keeps of that circle of thought. Keep notes, be aware, _think_ before she makes any choices; that’s about all she can really do.

Putting down her pad and pen she lays back down, relaxing under the warmth Nathan and Duke throw off. Hoping she’ll be able to go back to sleep.

-

Duke probably shouldn’t let Jean and Daniel know that their looks of confusion are adorable, but they are. “Dancing?” Jean asks incredulously. “Why do we need to learn dancing?”

They’re in the Crocker house’s ballroom—Wade had left sometime earlier, to go who knows where—Nathan’s watching in clear amusement by the open windows—Duke’s keeping their lessons inside for the time being, what with the killer on the loose. Resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose Duke takes a deep breath. “Well it’ll teach you how to gage your strength, use too much and your partner will go flying if you try to throw or swing them. Good reflexes and reactions. And dancing’s fun.”

Now Jean’s not the only one making a face. “How’s boring waltzing going to help?”

With a little wave of Duke’s hand Jean and Daniel step back. “What makes you think I’m gonna teach you to waltz? Cause your right, waltzing’s boring.” Although he has a nostalgic fondness for it. “Nope, I’m gonna teach you how to do the Lindy Hop.”

Again, adorable confused looks. “What’s the Lindy Hop?”

He bites back a smile and brings up some swing music on his phone, the sound’s tinny, but it’ll have to do. With a slight turn of his body Duke offers his hand up to Nathan. “You’ll see,” he tells the kids as Nathan pushes off from the wall and takes his hand.

“Why do I have to follow?” It’s not exactly muttered protests, yet Duke finds himself grinning.

“Because I’m the one teaching,” he responds cheekily.

Nathan heaves a sigh, yet when Duke takes the first step Nathan follows easily

They’re both a little rusty, yet it hardly matters when he finds himself enjoying it so immensely. It makes him wish Audrey were here so she could learn as well; he’d love to watch her and Nathan dance.

“Ready?” Duke’s already breathing heavily, and they’ve barely gotten into the complex stuff.

“Over or under?” The light in Nathan’s eyes is almost excited, and if they didn’t have an audience, well an audience of kids, Duke would probably pull him into a kiss—it doesn't help that Nathan’s cheeks have the same sort of flush they get during really intense sex.

Duke’s cheeky grin returns. “Both.”

Not giving Nathan a chance to really protest Duke widens his stance his arms taking all of Nathan’s weight as the other man slides down in between his legs. Over the music he can hear Daniel and Jean make sounds of amazement, but really they haven’t seen anything yet.

Arms straining Duke hauls Nathan upright in barely a second, then keeps pulling as he helps Nathan leap up and over his head. There are sharp gasps as Duke lets go and whirls around, the two of them colliding in a controlled manner as they keep dancing.

By the time the music’s over they’re both breathing heavily, and Duke doesn’t feel any shame in collapsing onto the floor, relishing the cool wood—especially when Nathan follows suit. Just like the last time he’d been on the floor here, Jean and Daniel swarm him, but this time their chatter is excited as they tell him how cool that was.

Lungs burning Duke manages a weak laugh, turning his head slightly to stare at Nathan, who, barely a second later, turns his own head to stare at him. They share a smile and Duke resolves that they’re definitely going to do something like that in front of Audrey. Just to show off how awesome they are.

-

Audrey’s feeling pretty jealous of Nathan at the moment, he gets to have fun helping Duke teach the twins, while she and James are at the morgue, talking to Eleanor about their vic. It makes her kind of grumpy really, but she knows she can’t let it interfere with her work.

“What’ve we got Eleanor?”

“A doozy,” the woman replies snapping on a pair of gloves. “Ain’t seen nothing like it, stumped even Gloria and she’s practically ancient compared to me.”

Audrey bites back an amused huff. “And you’re both paragons of youthful vigor compared to me, but I think James would prefer we not compare wrinkles in his company.” James’ ears pinken when she looks at him.

Eleanor laughs. “Yes, yes. Alright, business. We’ve got a male, probably mid-fifties. Sent DNA down to Bangor for testing, hasn’t come back yet, but I’ll send over the results when it does. Also sent dental impressions around to the dentists; probably hear back from them first. In the meantime haven’t been able to get much else. Whatever managed to do this was big and fast, strong too; all wounds are pre-mortem, as Gloria would probably say it wasn’t his lucky day.” She goes over to one of the slabs and starts pulling back the cloth covering it.

“Nothing was eaten, but none of your folks ever turned up with the skin.”

James blinks at that. “He’s missing his skin?” Audrey knows what James’ thinking, that there might be another skinwalker in town; Arla doesn’t need to resort to this with James’ powers. But Audrey wouldn’t think one could do _this_ , definitely a lot more difficult than just stealing a skin from an already dead body.

“Yep. Which certainly doesn’t help with the IDing. But anyways, this is the largest whole part we’ve got.” It’s what looks like most of a torso and Audrey’s certain she’s not going to be wanting lunch anytime soon. There are gouges, but it’s hard to tell anything about them.

“Did you find anything in the wounds?” Audrey bites back a smile, James’ turning into quite the cop, but now isn’t exactly the best time to tell him how proud she is.

Eleanor shakes her head. “Sand, sand, and more sand. Gloria came in grudgingly and did some of her juju, she says claws, lots of claws.” Which is more than they had before.

James, bless him, actually gets closer to the torso; eyes narrowing slightly in thought. “It’s harder to tell without the skin, but these kind of remind me of cougar wounds.”

“Seen a lot of those?” Eleanor arches an eyebrow. Cougars aren’t exactly common here after all.

“Grew up in Colorado, went camping a lot. In college a friend of mine was mauled by one.” Audrey wonders if James was there or not to save said friend. “Could be bear. Definitely something with big ass claws.”

Eleanor covers the torso. “Well looks like I’ll be calling some folks then. Lucky us Haven’s got no shortage of biologists. ‘Course if it’s supernatural they probably won’t be much use.”

“Well thanks for the help,” even if they’ve only learned one thing new. There can’t be all that many supernatural creatures that can have big claws, and strength enough to do this. But why the missing skin?

Tugging her gloves off Eleanor smiles, “‘course. And I’ll probably be getting in touch with you soon on everything else.”

She and James both nod before making their way out. “Do we want to track Arla down and ask about skinwalkers?” It might be a wild goose chase, but it’s better than them doing nothing at the moment.

“She and Jenny are trying out cake right now at Rosemary’s. I guess it’s worth a shot, but she might not be interested in talking about it.” James knows her best, but Audrey would like to think Arla’d at least _try_ to help in a police investigation.

“It’s still better than nothing,” she responds as she points her car downtown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read the second scene and are wondering, exactly, what the Lindy Hop really is, let me direct you to [this video](https://youtu.be/qkthxBsIeGQ).


	11. Chapter 11

Dwight comes into his house to the sounds of shouting kids in the back yard. He finds Jennifer in the kitchen and scoops her up so that he can rest his chin on her shoulder. “Why did we agree to watch your cousins today?” To be fair he doesn’t mind, he’s actually glad Lizzie has kids that aren’t afraid of her and can take a few licks.

Jenny huffs and tilts her head back slightly. “Because Nathan, James, and Audrey wanted Duke to take a look at the new body,” she says it patiently, knowing full well he already knows it.

Dwight knew about the body at least, and there’s a crew on standby for when the police have finished. He’s not happy about there being a killer on the loose, but on the other hand it’s been less of a headache than William had been.

“Right, and Wade?” He’s never met Duke’s brother, but so far he seems to be kind of a shitty parent.

With a turn of her head Jenny noses his cheek affectionately. “Well Duke would rather the twins not have a whole lot of interaction with him if any of us can help it. James confirmed that there’s something not right with him.”

Well at least Jean and Daniel are interesting kids so far. “I’m surprised you’re not out there with them.”

“If they need my help I’ll gladly go. But I’m not exactly trained in forensic investigation, and I might accidently destroy something if I’m not careful.”

Which reminded him. “Any more strange dreams?” He finds he might be kind of disappointed if she hasn’t, they’ve certainly been enjoyable to listen to her talk about.

She shakes her head, “nope. Remember in the last one I heard someone talking about firstborn kids and I noped right out of there? No more weird ass dreams of my own kingdom anymore.”

“That’s a bold claim,” he says with a smile that makes his cheeks hurt. “You think you can control your dreams now?” He’s heard stories of seethers doing it, but those people were bless by Freya who wove dreams, so it made sense.

Jennifer twists in his grip and he adjusts so that he doesn’t drop her. “Dwight Agnar Hendrickson, are you doubting me?” At least it’s mock offense in her voice. “Because I’ll have you know I have _excellent_ self control.”

All he can do is laugh and kiss her, enjoying how easily they both fall into familiar rhythms. He finds he’s still smiling when they break apart. “We could test that tonight, see if you’re telling the truth.”

She turns bright pink and his smile curls into something else altogether.

“Are you going to keep being disgusting? I’m hungry.” Jenny’s body makes a valiant attempt to jump out of his arms, but he keeps his hold. Standing next to them is Jean, Erna’s behind her, staring at the young werewolf intently.

He and Jennifer share a fond look before he finally sets her down. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” Dwight tells her easily. Finding himself thinking that maybe Jennifer’s got the right idea about adopting.

-

It’d been a week since the last body and Nathan finds himself wondering if this is going to start being a Thing soon. And if it is, how hectic the press conference is going to be; he’s probably getting a headache just thinking about it.

At least this time the body’s in a less public place than the downtown beach. And the victim still has their skin. It doesn’t help that he recognizes her, always makes it worse.

Duke rises from his crouch and makes a face. “All I’m getting is blood and more blood. _Maybe_ something musty, but I don’t know if that’s from the attacker or the few animals that managed to find the body before we did.”

Next to him Audrey sighs through her teeth. “Well thanks for checking anyways.” It really does feel like old times to have him with them.

James closes his note pad. “Are we going to have to worry about Feds or state police?” It’s a good question; especially considering the killer might be supernatural.

“Not yet,” Nathan answers. “So far both victims’ve been local.” Not even her wallet had been stolen. “It’ll become something to worry about if it’s a tourist or summer person.” But if it comes to that Garland had shared with him those in the FBI and State who were in the know and would be safe to work with.

“We’ll keep our fingers cross,” Audrey chimes in.

Nathan agrees, so far at least this is easier to contain than William; although more than a few of the human population aren’t happy. Both the police and Guard have been enough so far to deal with the situations, but Nathan hopes that things don’t get any worse; with no Barn to help smooth things along they’re on their own—Nathan still wouldn’t have decided differently however.

James nods, then wanders over to Eleanor to help her load it into her van. At least the skin should make Eleanor happy.

“Think I’ll start asking some of my shadier contacts if they know something like this,” Duke says. “Might have to leave town for a day or two to reach them.” A part of Nathan rejects the idea out of hand, he wants Duke to stay in _Haven_ where Nathan can keep an eye on him, _know_ he’s safe.

At least he’s gotten better at accepting that, while also knowing that he doesn’t control Duke like that. But that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

“If you do keep in touch,” Audrey’s hand reaches out and her fingers wrap around Duke’s wrist. “Otherwise we’re going to worry more.”

Duke smiles. “I’d kiss you if we weren’t at a crime scene,” the sentiment is probably making Nathan smile. “But leaving’s a last resort. Most of them I can reach by phone.” Which is a relief. “And if I do have to go...can you try to keep the twins away from Wade?” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I know it’s probably illegal, but I just...I hate sending them back to him at the end of the day. They’re doing better than before and are more confident. But, something in me just doesn’t trust him.”

Nathan doesn’t really understand, but he also trusts Duke, trusts his instincts and hunches. “We’ll do our best. Maybe Audrey or I can talk Dwight and Jenny to have them over for an extended sleepover.” From the few texts she’s sent all three of them today the twins seem to be getting along swimmingly with Lizzie.

Audrey doesn’t say anything, but neither he nor Duke press her for an answer, her memories of foster homes might be false, but they’re still the ones she has to deal with. And all this talk might be raising some bad ones.

Instead he finds himself taking her hand—he’s so used to touching her and Duke now that sensation doesn’t even surprise him anymore, yet he finds he revels in it just the same—and tugging her back towards the Bronco. “Come on, we should head back to the station. Wait for Eleanor to get back to us.” He’s grateful she starts walking with him without a fight, Duke jogging for a second to catch up. “You can help me write my speech for the inevitable press conference.”

Which gets a laugh out of Audrey. “Oh no,” she’s smiling as they climb in. “Because if I agree to that I’m gonna end up writing the _whole_ speech.”

He manages to flash her a guileless look as he turns to watch himself backing out. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Duke?”

“Oh no,” Duke answers from the back. “You’re not pulling me into this, you’re dropping me off at the Gull and I’m going to bake a million cookies and call people. You two have your little tizzy over writing.”

Nathan heaves an exaggerated sigh.

-

Despite Duke saying he wanted to go to the Gull and bake he instead asks Nathan to drop him off at the docks. He needs to get a few things from the _Rouge_ , and it would be nice to have his own truck instead of relying on Nathan or Audrey for a ride.

Grabbing his books he heads back out onto the deck. Before he can even leave the ship however he sees Loke, although he guesses it’s really Loki isn’t it? Standing on the dock right before the gangplank. His hair’s darker than it was the first time they met, but everything else about him is the same, well his clothing is certainly more modern as well.

Even though Loki’s blind he must sense Duke somehow, his lips quirk and his head turns. “You wanted to speak with me?”

Duke had pretty much had the strangest conversation with Dwight a few days ago about the Norse gods and how one might go about trying to contact them. He hadn’t told Dwight the whole story, but enough that Dwight had snorted and said “that makes so much sense.” Still at least it hadn’t required Duke killing anything or anyone—a win in his book.

“Yeah, do you need help getting on?” Loki’s other senses have probably compensated for the lack of sight, but like with Nathan there are probably limits.

“I might be blind,” Loki huffs. “But I can still see well enough.” As if to prove his words Loki takes the gangplank with ease. “I must say, it was quite a shock to be called with fire and blood, that has not happened in some time. Not that many seek to call on me.”

Duke turns and leads the way back into the _Rouge_. “I thought you might be the best person to ask, I thought about calling on Sigyn, but, well…” He gives a sort of helpless shrug, unsure of how to convey his thoughts.

“She would not have answered, she is...not all herself at the moment.” Sadness fills Loki’s strange scent at his words and Duke can imagine what he’s going through.

“Have a seat,” he gestures at the chairs and couch. “Uh, do you want something to drink? And you seem to be taking this really well.” Duke would have thought Loki would react as strongly as Sigyn had to this revelation that they were _very_ distantly related.

Loki takes a chair, slumping into it in a way that’s familiar to Duke. “I am fine thank you. And in a way I always knew. Nari was a clever boy, clever enough to survive even with the whole world against him. I didn’t realize he had gone to such great lengths, but I am glad he found some happiness after everything that happened.

“But, you have questions for me. And I smell old magic nearby.”

Duke pours himself a finger of bourbon and goes into his bedroom, rooting around in his jewelry box until he finds one of the rings he’d gotten from the fairy queen. The silver ring warms in his hand as his fingers wrap around it. “About nine months ago we did our usual exchange of gifts with the fairies and they gave me three rings.” He holds out his fist and when Loki’s palm rises up Duke puts the ring on it. “They were made by a guy call Volganther? I know they do things, but I don’t know what. And I want to know.”

Loki’s pale fingers curl around the ring feeling around the edges and bringing it up to his face. “Völundr’s rings? I had thought them lost. Whatever you may have given to the folk in return you certainly were not cheated.” His thumb ran absently across a bit of interweave that looked like a horse. “This one feels like Ástivarði, Love-defender. He made it for his wife the valkyrie Hervör as a wedding gift. It gave her the strength and knowledge to protect the ones she loved. You said you had two more?” It’s not quite greed in Loki’s voice, but clearly he wants to ‘see’ the other two as well.

“Yeah, hold on a second.” He finishes off his bourbon and goes back to get the others. The gold one he finds easily, but the copper. Duke frowns, actually upending his box and rooting through everything. But he can’t find it, he’s pretty sure he hasn’t lost it, waylaying a magic ring seems like a really bad idea.

Yet it’s clearly not in with his other jewelry. His frown deepens as he takes the other ring to Loki. “I can’t find one, it must have gone missing somehow.” Not exactly a pleasant thought, the rings weren’t exactly sentient after all. But it’s not as if a whole lot of people _know_ about the rings.

Ástivarði’s sitting on the coffee table, to Duke it seems to be glowing softly. Once again Loki reaches out to take the other ring. “Missing one? That does not bode well.” Again he feels out the ring, taking his time.

“Niðeldr, forged in sorrow, his wife and son gone, he himself captured by Niðhad and bound in irons. He made it to help him find his way, for even waning moonlight can show a path if one exists.” With care Loki sets it next to Ástivarði. “Both powerful rings. Völundr made seven-hundred however, so I could not guess as to what the last one could be.”

Duke collapses onto the couch. “It was copper, but I don’t know if that helps. I wish I knew what had happened to it, it’s gonna bug me until I figure it out.” He runs a hand through his hair and makes a frustrated sound. The only ‘stranger’ that’s been on the _Rouge_ recently is Wade, and it’s not like he knows what the rings are, hell if Duke told him Wade probably wouldn’t believe him in the first place.

“Copper was common enough back then, Völundr probably forged many with that metal.” Loki leaned forward, fingers twisting together in strange ways. “If you wish I could cast a spell, discover what happened to it. It is an easy enough thing. Consider it a thank you, for giving me the opportunity to see Völundr’s magic up close.”

“Sure,” it certainly won’t cause any harm that Duke can think of. And it’d be nice to have an answer instead of thinking about it for days on end.

Loki’s fingers untwist as he stands, spreading as far apart as they can. “ _Finna minn ringer Völundr stela_ _heðan_.”

The room doesn’t exactly shimmer, but shapes do appear, human shaped ones, that soon sharpen into Duke and Wade. _Oh no_ , dread settles in Duke’s stomach, this was almost two weeks ago. There’s no sound, but he watches as the two ghosts act out a pantomime, going through motions and silently having conversations Duke remembers.

Ghost!Duke goes to the bathroom and while he’s gone ghost!Wade goes into his bedroom. Duke and Loki follow, and Duke finds he’s not angry just strangely disappointed, to see this past Wade rifling through Duke’s jewelry box like a thief. No, not _like_ a thief.

Copper gleams in Wade’s hand as he takes the ring.

The scene freezes and Loki steps forward. “Oh.”

Great, things were about to get worse. “What? Do you know which ring it is?” He has a feeling Loki does, and that it’s not good.

“You know that Tolkien took much from our ways in his books yes?” Loki continues before Duke can really answer that. “Much as Sauron did Völundr forged a ring who’s powers surpassed all his others. He forged it with hate in his heart, and a yearning to be free of Niðhad and his cruelties. Urðrrún let him. It hid his actions from even the Fates themselves, allowed him to slip from his forge and into the royal quarters. He lay with Bodvild, Niðhad daughter, and stole Niðhad’s sons from their bed…”

“Stop,” Duke interrupted, not exactly eager to hear how the story ended. “So this ring, what? Makes you invisible?” If they were going with _Lord of the Rings_ here it made sense.

Loki snorts. “Nothing so simple as that. For as long as you wear it you...don’t exist. If you commit a crime, no will see you do it, if you decided to run naked through the streets no one would notice, any action you take goes unnoticed, even to gods such as myself.”

“And Wade has it,” that...is not a comforting thought. Had Wade been playing him this entire time? Some grand trick? Or was it all true? Could he be some unknown pawn?

No, Duke didn’t like this at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun Dun Duuuunnnn!!!
> 
> If my Old Norse is wrong I'll gladly accept any corrections. 
> 
> ~~also there's the most ridiculous reason for why Loki looks different in this chapter than before, it all has to do w/ the year and a movie that would have come out around then....~~


	12. Chapter 12

They can’t find Wade.

Something about that is highly amusing to Nathan, although he wouldn’t be able to explain why. But he keeps that bit of humor to himself, focusing on trying to figure out where Wade is.

Of course they’ve got too few police that he can risk if Wade is a threat, and too much ground to cover. It’s frustrating, but it’s what he has to deal with. If Nathan could have his way they’d find Wade in some old abandoned fishing shack in town, but it’s wishful thinking at it’s best and he does his best to ignore it.

When he comes back into his office after a tense lunch it’s to find Dwight waiting for him. “Please tell me you’ve got something.” Nathan’s not quite at the level of being willing to listen to hearsay and rumor, but he’s close.

“Just that I’ve got Guard combing the Brambles, I don’t know how long it’ll take us to cover it all, but we’ll do our best. Maybe if we could get in contact with the fairy queen it could go quicker?” Nathan probably _should_ just tell Dwight how to contact the fairies, it’s not that hard to do really, but he’s held onto that secret for so long that giving it away will be hard.

He takes his seat. “I’ll get in contact with her, but she might not be willing to help.” She hadn’t with William, then again this is only a manhunt, not a son of War causing chaos around town. “I’ll let you know either way.”

Dwight nods. “Duke said he’d help organize the island search, but that one’s going to take even longer.” A fact no one’s happy about, but at least with the islands it’s easier to spot if someone’s been there recently, and harder for Wade to escape from if he is hidden away on one.

“And who knows what Wade might do next,” it might be an assumption that Wade’s the one doing the killings, but it’s a fair one to make in Nathan’s mind. After all he’s got a magic ring that hides his actions from everyone, which explains why Haven hasn’t been able to give Audrey as much as it should’ve.

“You alright Nathan?” The concern isn’t surprising, but it does throw Nathan off slightly. “You’re looking sort of..run down.”

“I’m fine,” he huffs. It’s mostly true even. This morning when he’d woken up he could taste those strange tangs again, even some new ones. It’s starting to get disconcerting enough that he’s actually contemplating telling someone—he knows that when they find out he’s been keeping this from them Duke and Audrey are going to shout at him.

Dwight gives him an assessing look, as if he’s trying to guess whether Nathan’s lying or not. It’s a good look, and were Nathan a regular human being he might actually find it kind of scary, as it is he holds fast to his assertion. “How’re Jean and Daniel holding up?” It’s as good a distraction as any.

“Alright,” Dwight’s eyes narrow like he knows what Nathan’s trying to do. “It’s probably easier to look after them what with school being out. Lizzie and Liam can help entertain them at least. And it’s good for all of them to have new friends. Lizzie’s started to teach them berserker stuff,” there’s a fond smile on Dwight’s face, Nathan’s pretty sure his expression is mirroring Dwight’s.

“Good,” Duke hadn’t expected them to, but the last thing they need right now is either kid going out to try and find their dad. So at least they seem to have taken Duke’s words to heart. ”I’ll get in touch with the queen this afternoon and call you, and keep me in the loop with your search.”

Dwight’s military enough to at least realize when he’s being dismissed. “Alright,” he stands with a nod. “If I don’t hear from you’ll I’ll assume the worst and send someone to ransack your house.”

It’s a weird threat, but Nathan finds himself laughing. “I’m certainly Audrey won’t let me forget.”

Dwight’s grinning as he leaves and Nathan does his best to take a few deep breaths to focus himself.

-

In his shifted form Duke bounds through the Brambles. He should be out helping organize things like he said he would, but he just can’t at the moment. He needs to _run_ , to just...escape things, even if only for a few minutes.

On the other hand he, and the others, are starting to wonder if Wade _had_ gone to the islands. No boat’s been reported missing, no one’s reported him hiring them to take him out, and not even Duke’s tried to make the four mile swim to the nearest island.

He gives a shake of his head, no, he’s not thinking about that sort of thing right now. He’s just going to run and _be_.

In a way it’s strange to be in this form after his wolf dreams. Certainly a sharp contrast between them, not that he’d have it any other way. _This_ is how he likes the world, why confine himself to only the one shape when there’s the possibility of two? The fact that Wade seems to have given it up—although how much could be debated if Wade was responsible for the killings—is just so... _alien_ to Duke. How could he have given all this up?

At least Daniel and Jean are adapting well, although they do seem happy that his lessons have been put off for the time being. Granted Lizzie seems to be teaching them what _she_ knows, and the idea of berserker-werewolves is both amusing and terrifying. Maybe when he’s done here he’ll go visit them, just play around for a little while before letting himself return to the real world.

Which brings up a question he _should_ be thinking about. What to do with Jean and Daniel. If they catch Wade and find out he’s responsible, then they’re going to need somewhere to go; he knows by law they should go to their mother, but Duke doesn’t even know who she is, and she’s certainly not going to understand what they need. No, he’s going to fight tooth and nail—pun mostly intended—to make sure they stay here in Haven where he can help look after them.

But he needs to talk with Nathan and Audrey about it. Audrey knows she’d rather not get pregnant again anytime soon, but he has no idea about how she might feel about adoption, same with Nathan. Or what about Jennifer? James and Arla, he thinks, will have enough on their hands soon enough with a baby on the way, no need to saddle them with older kids. And if he asks Jennifer, well then he needs to talk to Dwight about it as well probably.

It makes the whole thing more complex, but Duke finds he wouldn’t have it any other way, this is his life now and he likes it’s complications. It means he’s got people who care about him and who are so involved in his life that he can’t just make decisions willy nilly.

Banking right, and using a well placed tree to turn completely, he starts heading back the way he came. Time for him to be a human again and do a lot of talking.

-

She’s in front of the table again, with it’s 12 cards. Her 12 lives.

Mara the oldest, the tree all of them have sprung from, her fruits. All the way to Lucy. Cards are such simple things to represent the magnitude of what’s before her. Yet they do.

This time she reaches for a newer card. A woman with short cropped black hair, her black dress sparkling with beads. She holds a champagne flute in her hands, upside down. **The Charm** , her card reads, Maggie’s card.

Audrey’s fingers touch it and she’s whisked away.

_Black hair whips in her face as she takes the car through another sharp turn, she lets out a laughing howl of delight as the car fight a little, tires clinging to the old dirt road while the engine gives it’s own rumbling snarl._

_“Hey now!” Duke’s voice comes from her right, not panicked, but a tad worried, even if there is laughter in it. “Don’t go crashing her already.”_

_Maggie laughs again, her feet working the pedals with expertise as she brings the car to a fishtail halt. “Crash her!” She gives an affronted turn to Duke, clean shaven and hair slicked back with pomade. “Why would I do that to this beauty?” Her hands caress the steering wheel. “I don’t want to crash her hon, I want to see all she’s got, just wish I had someone to_ really _race against. I could probably outrun death in this beaut.”_

_“You should probably be glad I find that sexy and not weird,” Duke’s voice deepens slightly as he slides towards her._

_A much throatier laugh this time, “mmm, you say the sweetest things Duke.” Her fingers curl into his shirt when he’s close enough. “Bet you can say it even sweeter.”_

_There are silver flecks in his eyes as he leans in even closer, his lips capturing hers in a kiss._

Audrey’s heart is pounding in her chest, and she can feel a pulsing between her legs, insisting on satisfaction of some sort. She squirms, wondering if it might be worth it to wake Duke or Nathan up, or if she should take care of it on her own.

Despite her dream she finds herself moving towards Nathan, pressing her front against his back, arms wrapping around his chest as she nuzzles his shoulder. Her hands smooth downwards, as he begins to stir.

She sets her teeth lightly into his shoulder and he twitches. “Mmaudrey?” She loves it when he sounds like this, half-awake and still caught in the vestiges of sleep.

“Morning Nathan,” she smiles into his shoulder, not exactly sure if it _is_ morning, but who cares? Her fingers slip under his boxers and her smile grows as she wraps her fingers around him, feeling him grow as he wakes up more.

He gasps at the touch, making her smile grow.

Behind her the bed shifts, and soon there’s a second line of warmth against her. “Someone’s horny this morning,” there’s laughter in Duke’s voice and she has to roll her eyes.

“You say the sweetest things,” it slips out of her mouth and she freezes.

Duke does too, pulling away from her slightly. “Audrey?” Wondering if she’s alright, if she’s _herself_.

With a sigh she pulls away from Nathan, who’s at least more awake now and doesn’t even protest—though she can imagine he wants to.

“I’m, I’m fine Duke, I’m _me_.” She sits up, wrapping her arms around herself. “I, I just had a strange dream is all.”

Nathan’s the one who sits upright with her, pull her gently into his arms. “About Maggie?” Duke shifts closer as well, one of his arms curling around her waist. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he knows, the two were together after all, if anyone knows Maggie’s turns of phrases it’s Duke; yet she is still caught off guard.

“Yeah,” it comes out shaky. “It’s weird, the past few times I’ve fallen asleep I get these...cards, one for each of my lives and if I touch one I get a memory. I chose Maggie this time. You were both in a car driving around, it must have been new because she was excited about it, talked about how she could outrun death in it.”

Duke presses himself closer somehow. “I remember that night.” The fondness in his voice warms her. “Definitely would’ve been arrested if anyone’d stumbled on us, three crates of gin in the trunk, and _very_ enthusiastic sex.”

Audrey finds herself laughing softly as she rolls her eyes. “Shameless,” she teases, giving him a light shove with her hip.

“Always,” he agrees.

The silent laughter Nathan gives warms her. “But yeah, weird dreams.”

Both men are silent for the next few moments, all of them in their own thoughts for a while. At least until Duke speaks up. “I’ve...I’ve been having weird dreams too, past few weeks.” He twists around so that his head’s on her lap, and without much thought she uncrosses her arms and beings threading her fingers through his hair.

“I’m a wolf, a real one. You both are too. We’re a pack, with pups,” Audrey finds herself making a sound, not quite of disbelief, but the idea of her as a wolf just feels odd. “And just well, being wolves I guess. The past few times there’s been this voice in my head that’s said I can have that, I just have to say I want it.” She feels his nose and cheek press into her belly as he moves in closer.

One of her hands slides over slightly so her thumb can rub at the spot behind his ear that makes him melt. A rumbling purr leaves him as his whole body goes limp. “Haven’t though, ‘cause I like this right here.”

“Well thanks for that,” Audrey gives him a soft smile. “I mean I’m certain I look magnificent as a wolf. But Nathan?”

“Hey,” he gives her a light shove, enough to rock her. But when she peeks at him out of the corner of her eye she sees his expression is as serious as Duke’s had been. “I’ve been...well I had _a_ dream, it was...weird. Like something was flipping through TV channels really quickly, got lots of little flashes, but nothing...big.”

Nathan hunches down, resting his chin on her shoulder. He looks like he’s lost in thought. Then again it’s a lot to think about. All of them having strange dreams after Conli told them not to trust them? Clearly something’s going on.

“But,” Nathan speaks again. “That wasn’t the really weird thing.”

“What was the weird thing?” Duke’s voice is muffled now by her shirt.

Nathan’s silent again, but neither she nor Duke push; letting him take his time to get what he needs to say right. “When I went to go shower when I woke up, I...I found a patch of scales on my arm. I scrubbed at it and it came off, looked a lot like shedded lizard skin. I thought it might have been a prank by one of you. And I haven’t noticed anything like it since.”

Audrey finds herself turning to stare at him. “I’m sorry, what? Scales?” The idea of it isn’t in and of itself strange, there are actually a few people in Haven who have scales from time to time. But Nathan having them? “Why didn’t you tell us then?”

He gives a little shrug. “I just...kind of forgot. And since it only happened the once I didn’t think it was all that important.”

“It sure as fuck is important,” Duke’s voice isn’t muffled anymore, his head having turned to look at Nathan as well. “It could have something to do with what’s happening to you.” Duke rolls slightly so that he’s lying almost completely on her legs; one of his arms wrapping around Nathan.

Nathan’s ears pinken. “I’m...sorry. I wasn’t thinking I guess.”

“We forgive you,” Audrey leans over slightly and kisses his cheek. “So the question is are the scales and the dreams related? And are we the only ones having these dreams?”

The three of them cuddle together, lost in their own trains of thought for the time being. All of them thinking and wondering about the same thing, but from their own different ways. After a moment or so however Audrey thinks she has something. “If we can’t figure it out, I think I might know someone who might be able to help.”


	13. Chapter 13

“I don’t know what you think I can do to help,” Carrie still might sound unsure about what they need her to do, but she’s at least willing to help. And that’s all that matters to Duke right now. Especially with this dream thing being bigger than any of the realized.

Jenny, Arla, a few of the people Audrey and Nathan were close to at work. Even Claire had apparently had one. But they were all people they _knew_ , and who could be considered friends.

They’re clearly being targeted, but by whom, and for what reason, still eludes them for the time being—although Jennifer had mentioned something about a voice wanting firstborn children, which seems far too fairy tale witch for Duke’s tastes.

“That’s alright,” Audrey soothes. “For right now we just want to to...monitor our dreams, see if you notice anything unusual or out of place.”

They’re in Audrey’s apartment, Nathan’s bedroom not exactly being conducive to this sort of thing, and Duke didn’t exactly want any strangers, even ones Audrey and Nathan vouched for, on the _Rouge_ right now.

Still, weird to have someone that’d be watching them while they slept; even if it’s not the weirdest thing they’ve ever done.

“I,” Carrie takes a deep breath. “I can do that. Things might feel a little...fuzzier when I’m observing, but I can’t actually alter your dreams. And if any are of the weird sex variety I reserve the right to never speak of it again.”

Even Nathan laughs a little at that. “Alright,” Audrey agrees. “And if nothing happens tonight we’ll try again for a few more nights, just to make sure.” Duke kind hopes something _does_ happen tonight, just so they can have their bedrooms to themselves again; he finds himself entertaining the idea of dragging Audrey, Nathan, or both of them away from work for a quicky if this keeps up.

Then again, with a killer on the loose that might not be the best idea.

At least Audrey’s bed is still as soft and comfortable as always. Even if Nathan does complain it feels like he’s on a cloud.

There’s some jostling as they work out sleeping arrangements—really they should have done it first, and Duke hopes Carrie enjoys watching people in relationships being ridiculous. But they eventually settle on Nathan in the middle with Duke and Audrey curled around him.

Carrie’s quieter than Duke thought she’d be. Oh he can hear her heartbeat and breathing, can smell her too, but it’s less obtrusive than expected. Enough that she falls into the background easily; which is both a relief and a worry. Because _she_ could be the cause of the dreams, but with her being in the background Duke knows he shouldn’t have much trouble getting to sleep.

Which is what ends up happening, the getting to sleep thing, that is.

-

Again the table with it’s cards. But now Audrey finds herself more suspicious of them than anything else, but there’s nothing to it right now than to pick a card and see what it has to offer. Reaching out she grazes her fingers across the one next to Mara’s the woman in a dark brown dress holding a butcher knife in her two hands. **The Knife,** her card reads; but Audrey knows who she really is, Genevieve, the one who taught Haven to fear her. 

 _Anger flashes in Genevieve's eyes as she dodges out of the way of a drunken man’s groping hand.  She quickly moves on, depositing her load of food and drinks at a table before hurrying back to the kitchens._  

 _It goes on like that for a few more minutes before she finally sheds the apron she’s been wearing over her dark brown dress.  She shivers as she goes to pull on a thick looking cloak, her fingers lovingly tracing an inner patch of the fabric before she tucked her blonde hair into the hood. Slipping on a pair of gloves she headed out into the snow._  

 _Only to pull up short at the doorstep when she finds herself surrounded by a group of men. The lead one steps forward. “Genevieve.”_  

 _Her hands slip into her cloak, the fabric moving as she clearly grabs something. “Mr. Crocker, I dare say this many men frighten me. Is there hunting to be done?”_  

 _Her question sends a ripple of laughter through the men and Crocker steps forward again, his eyes flashing silver in the lantern light. “No Genevieve, once called Mara, we are not here to hunt, we are here to judge.”_  

 _Genevieve frowns at the name. “I have no idea what you mean, ‘formerly called Mara’? Do you mean to say that I have misremembered my own name my whole lifetime?”  Again the fabric of her cloak ripples._  

 _“That is no matter,” anger flashes across her face. “Mara swore to help us, but you have given only chaos and strife. It is time you returned to the Barn.”_  

 _“Help you?” Genevieve laughs, a bitter ugly sound. “Why would I want to help such an insignificant, sniveling town? What have_ you _done for me that warranted my gratitude or thanks? I was all but a queen in my birthplace and here you treat me as less than even your cows. And yet you demand my_ help _?”_  

 _The men around her mutter, clearly not happy with her words, but before they can act Genevieve's pulled a long, wicked looking knife out and is charging at Roy Crocker…_  

Unlike before the memory fades away before it could finish, Audrey finds herself reaching for Genevieve’s card again, she doesn’t want to experience the woman’s evil  again, but she does want to know what occurred. 

Yet when she gets only a few inches from the card her hand stops, as if it hit a pane of glass. She tries to reach a different card, a woman in a gray veil and **The Tear** written beneath her picture, yet again the feeling of something between her hand and the card. 

 _“I will give them to you,”_ a crooning voice fills the air. _“But I want something in return.”_  

Audrey frowns, Jennifer, and Arla privately, had told her they’d both had a voice ask them about giving it children, so it’s not exactly hard to guess what the voice might want from her. She could be wrong on the other hand. “What?” 

 _“Such a simple thing,”_ the voice answers after a brief moment of silence. _“Your daughter in law carries a child. Swear her life to me when she is born and you will have your past whenever you wish it. Think of all the experiences you’ll have. Perhaps one will even help you in finding your lover’s brother.”_  

Which meant that either the voice has access to her memories or that it is in Haven itself and was watching them. 

“No,” as if she’d give up her granddaughter for _memories_. 

An angry sound leaves the voice and Audrey struggles to wake. Pain fills her and instead of fighting it she embraces it, pain doesn’t come from dreams. Duke or Nathan must be doing something to try and draw her back.

The pain intensifies as she finally awakens, and when her eyes dart around she sees Duke’s claws embedded in her forearm, silver ring glinting on his fingers. When he sees her open eyes his claws retract and he heaves a sigh of relief. “Gods Audrey, you stopped breathing for a second there.”

Before she can even respond Nathan is curling around her, arms and legs trapping her against him and she can feel tears on her cheek. “Don’t do that again,” he murmurs in her hair, voice sounded tired and broken.

She lets him cling, glad he lets Duke extract her arm and fuss over it once he’s gotten the first aid kit from her kitchen. As the painkillers do their work she finds herself wondering what happened to Haven with that injury. Divots in the roads? Tears in buildings? Granted it’s a minor injury comparatively.

But she doesn’t let herself dwell on that for long. “Carrie?” She’s got no idea if the woman had been observing her dreams or not, but she had to have picked up on _something_.

“Gimmie a second,” her voice sounds clogged, and Audrey manages to crane her neck around Nathan’s bulk to see the woman’s got a tissue up her nose to catch the blood.

“I hope that wasn’t me,” she presses herself closer to Nathan, because it lets her get a better angle to look and talk to Carrie at. If it was she clearly owes the woman coffee or something, she hadn’t realized observing someone’s dreams could injure Oneiroi.

Carrie shakes her head. “Not you, whatever,” she pauses to switch out tissues. And gives a grateful smile when Duke tosses her a disinfecting wipe. “Whatever was giving that dream to you was powerful. Don’t think I’ve ever come across anything like it. I wanna talk to my grandma though, see if she might know something.”

Audrey gives a smile. “Thanks, for everything.” For now it’s enough for her to know that it’s _someone_ doing this to them. “Duke could you see Carrie out?” She’s not sure Nathan’s going to let go of her anytime soon, something like fond exasperation fills her at the thought. The bed shifts as Duke gets off it again, and Audrey settles herself more firmly in Nathan’s embrace as she listens to Duke and Carrie head towards the front door.

Absently she lets a hand glide up and down Nathan’s back, humming quietly like she’s trying to lure him back into sleep. A year ago Audrey’s certain she would have chaffed at the attention, she didn’t need to be coddled like a china doll. But Nathan, even after a hundred and fifty years, still doesn’t seem to understand the idea of immortality _and_ impermanence; as if the existence of one should invalidate the other.

So he’ll cling, and be attentive for the next day or so, to remind himself that she’s _fine_ and _alive_. And she’ll let him, because it does her no harm and helps him; also his fussing is sort of sweet and he at least will leave her alone if she asks.

The front door closes and she can just barely make out Duke’s footsteps as he heads back to them. His warmth at her back comforts her, helps her fully relax. “What happened?” One of his arms moves across her to curl around Nathan, helping to anchor him.

A faint smile curls on her mouth, Nathan can probably feel it considering her lips are pressed to his temple. “There were the cards again, and I...I chose Genevieve.” A brief shiver passes over her at the memory of all that hate and scorn. “I got pulled from the memory early, and when I tried to touch the cards again I was stopped somehow, like my trial version was up.” Both Duke and Nathan laugh softly; Nathan’s is heartening, and beneath her’s and Duke’s touch his initial panic is starting to die away.

“A voice told me I could have the rest, but that I needed to give them something in return.” She takes a deep breath. “They wanted Arla’s daughter, I didn’t think to ask why.” Even if she had she doubts the voice would have answered. She didn’t need her former memories or even fairy tales to know that giving up a child to mysterious voices never ended well.

A rumble passes through her, at first she thinks it comes from Duke, until another one starts up from behind her.

She doesn’t pull away from Nathan, but she does move her hands, fingers threading through his hair. “Nathan?” The sound he’d made certainly wasn’t like anything she’d ever heard from him before.

The rumble cuts off from both sides, Duke’s probably by choice, but Nathan’s out of shock most likely. “I…” She weaves her legs in between his, tangling them together even more.

“Never done that before?” She guesses.

“Yeah,” he doesn’t quite sound lost, but it’s a near thing.

With a soft sigh Audrey faces the inevitable. “We’re probably going to have to talk to Conli.” She doesn’t quite regret saying it, but she can’t say she likes the idea either. But what other choice do they have? There’s the Archive sure, but Nathan’s unique in the whole world; she’s not sure they’d find anything.

Duke’s own exhale tickles the back of her neck. “But will she talk with _us?_ ” Ah, the eternal question. Now at least Audrey knew she’d be able to get a hold of her mother relatively quick, but whether she’d come is an entirely different thing.

“We have to try,” she doesn’t see any other way of figuring out what’s going on with Nathan.

-

In the morning Nathan wakes up feeling cotton headed and leaden. His eyes open slowly, and then once he seems to gain proper control of them more quickly for a short while. He’s still in bed, tangled up with Audrey and Duke, he can still feel his limbs at least, with the sort of hazy quality that suggests the rest of his body has yet to ‘wake up’.

Not exactly bothered by it for now he just lets himself stare at Duke and Audrey; the both of them are still fast asleep, and even if he could move he doesn’t want to wake them just yet.

The terror from last night feels like a far away thing now, whether it’s because it happened last night, or because his brain feels not quite up to task he’s not sure. But he’s grateful either way. It lets him enjoy this moment and not worry about if Audrey’s still breathing, or if Duke’s alright—a quick glance however tells him that yes, Audrey’s still breathing, and that Duke’s definitely fine.

“If I didn’t find it romantic, staring that intense would probably be creepy,” Duke’s voice is sleep rough, but still manages to make Nathan blush and look away quickly, but he doesn’t apologize.

Between them Audrey shifts slightly, an alien noise leaving her; probably wondering what the two of them were doing up when they still had perfectly good hours to sleep away. He bites back a smile as best he can, while also relieved that none of them, well Duke or Audrey, seem to have been visited by their strange dream giver again.

A rumbling sound that Duke’s given up on correcting them about it not being a purr—“ _Wolves don’t_ purr _damn it!”_ —leaves Duke and Audrey settles back into sleep.

Like last night an answering sound tries to bubble up in Nathan, but he manages to hold it back for now at least. “Morning,” he grits out instead.

“Grumpy?” Under the sheets Nathan can feel Duke’s legs tangle them all up even further.

”Weird sound,” he manages to say, before deciding not to hold it back any longer. It’s a deeper sound than Duke’s own, but it seems to convey Nathan’s own soothing contentment just as well. And here he’d thought the weirdest thing so far had been the scales.

Duke presses a little closer, smushing Audrey even more between them. “You know I should be worried, but I kind of find it hot.” Another flush passes through Nathan at Duke’s words. It’s enough at least to get the sound to stop.

“Incorrigible,” it doesn’t come out quite as chastising as it should.

“Felt like I was trapped between two of those massage chairs,” even possibly still half asleep, it’s hard to miss the dry amusement in Audrey’s voice.

Nathan makes himself pull away slightly so she can probably breath. “Didn’t mean to wake you.” Out of the three of them she needed sleep the most after what happened. Something in him warms as he watches one of her hands slide up to rest above his heart.

“Already half awake, might as well just commit.” She opens her eyes and manages a soft smile. “Morning both of you.”

He watches as Duke nuzzles her shoulder from behind. “Morning Audrey. I have a serious question for you though.” Duke’s tone is far too innocent, and Nathan has a good idea where this is going. And it’s not serious at all.

“What?” There’s a note of crankiness in her voice at the thought of being serious before they’d even had coffee.

Duke lays a trail of kisses up her neck, pretty much the opposite of the smooth he was probably going for; then again Nathan’s limbs still feel like wood, so he can’t exactly throw stones. And at least it gets something like a laugh out of Audrey, probably more because of his stubble than anything else. “Was it,” Duke presses a kiss right below Audrey’s ear. “As good as your vibrator?”

Audrey breaks out into peals of laughter, which only stop after Nathan hauls himself out of bed and totters over to to coffee maker to start it. But after last night he’s not going to complain about it at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Readers of Our Bones will of course recognize the Genevive scene, although I also hope you notice the key difference between the two as well (because it's a bit of a hint, more to the memories than the person giving them if that makes sense).


	14. Chapter 14

It’s the last day of their search in the Brambles, if they don’t find Wade today then the Guard will set up sentinels to keep lookout before moving on to the islands.

The upside, Dwight thinks with a small sigh as he hacks through some more brambles, is that since Wade went into hiding he hasn’t killed anyone else. It’s something and he’ll gladly take it. His walkie-talkie crackles to life and he hopes it’s something useful. “Dwight?” Nathan’s voice calls out over the channel.

“What’s up Nathan? You got something?” At that thought his rage rumbles happily within him, wanting something to _do_ , a reason to cut loose and stop thinking for a time.

There’s a brief moment of silence before Nathan responds. “Yeah. Got in touch with the fairy queen,” well it’s about time, but Dwight tries not to be uncharitable; after all they’ve had other problems to deal with besides Wade. “Said she might have something for you. Ah, you’ll need to give a drop of blood so she can find you.” A pause, “also you’re supposed to say ‘over’ when you’re done speaking. Over.”

Dwight bites back his laughter, although he appreciates it. “You are a giant nerd,” he responds tartly, grateful that Nathan’ll at least take it for the teasing it is. “See if Duke and I invite you to come along on our hunting trip.” With that he turns his walkie-talkie off, clipping it back onto his belt. See how he likes _that_ , the nerd.

Unhooking his smallest knife Dwight flips the blade out and jabs it into the pad of his thumb, grimacing at the brief flash of pain. Once the blood starts to well up he turns his hand over and lets a drop fall to the ground. Cleaning his knife he puts it away and sticks his thumb in his mouth to suck away the rest of the blood.

At least he doesn’t have to wait long.

The fairy queen steps out of the woods and towards him. It does feel a little strange to be seeing her outside of May Day, but he puts that aside as best he can. She stops a few steps away from him, which feels like a pointed reminder that she’s one of the few women he has to look _up_ to look in the eyes.

“Berserker,” she inclines her head respectfully. “I am pleased to see you are well.”

Perhaps it’s a good thing they only see each other on the day when they’re supposed to threaten each other, because Dwight’s not necessarily good at roundabout flowing sort talk; at least not the way Duke and Nathan are. “Your majesty, I and my people appreciate your decision to help us in this matter.” That sounded good didn’t it? At least he’d remembered not to say ‘thanks’ in any form.

“Mmm,” the queen’s red eyes look a little distant. “I do not tolerate the idea of a Lilim on our lands, they bring only downfall and destruction. Even to such neutral beings as us.”

“So you know where Wade is?” Dwight doesn’t know what a Lilim is, but he makes a note to look it up in the Archive later—hopefully it’ll be mentioned in one of the books Alya and her book magic have gotten to already.

If the queen hears his question she makes no sign of it, instead continuing. “A bit less than a fortnight ago two men came to our door. One, who was Wade, by Nathan’s description, only stood there, eyes unseeing. Clearly in thrall to the Lilim.

“The Lilim himself asked for shelter, a place to retreat to should the people of Haven find him. Although his tone and manner suggested he thought it unlikely, but all Lilim are arrogant.” She might be right, but also no one’s been able to find Wade or this Lilim so far, so perhaps he’s got a right to be.

“We denied him, not wanting his ilk in our halls. He claimed to have no quarrel with us, but Lilim have quarrel with all living things, and even such as we can fall prey to their lures. He left, his thrall shuffling behind him. My shadowkin followed them,” she makes a sound Dwight thinks _might_ be exasperation. “They tell me the men have holed up in the old sea caves, that peer out to the knot.”

Dwight knows where that is, out past Edgewater beach. “The work of you shadowkin is much welcome. I hope we make good use of it.” Already his minds working on possibilities; they hadn’t expected two men, especially one who apparently even fairies abhor, but he hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to deal with.

-

Duke’s grateful that Dwight asked him to come along to get Wade, he knows it’s probably because if Wade transforms he’ll be one of the few people able to go toe to toe with him; but since no one’s said that outright Duke can think it’s also because he’s Wade’s brother and he deserves to at least try and help.

It’s warm enough that he doesn’t feel weird walking down the beach in swim trunks thankfully—if he does have to change he’d rather not bother with having to undress first. Other members of the Guard, as well as Nathan—Audrey had wanted to come, probably still did, but her being Haven and this being a possibly very dangerous situation meant she had to stay behind—are alongside him in a thinly spaced line. It’s also heartening to see the Guard are all armed with non-lethal weapons; perhaps if they can break Wade free of this Lilim, whatever it might be—since she couldn’t fight Audrey’d thrown herself into research with Claire and Alya—he’ll be less of a threat.

The beach is empty, thanks in part to Dwight’s actual job and the mayor’s son Chris talking about toxic algae blooms, and some other marine biology stuff, so at least there’s no worry about collateral damage, or unknowing witnesses.

When they get closer to the caves they all draw in and back slightly to go over what little plan they have. Dwight pulls out a map of the caves and lays it out on the sand. “The caves might be extensive,” Duke’s got good experience with that at least, he’d kept extra stock back here in the 20s occasionally when it wasn’t feasible to keep it on the _Amphitrite_. “But it’s more than likely Wade and our mystery man are camped out in one of the lesser used branches.”

Dwight’s finger traces the main cave line, bypassing the closer side caves for the ones further back. “So until we reach the middle we’ll be going in as a group. At the halfway point we’ll split into groups of five, there’ll need to be at least one heavy hitter per group since we don’t know which cave they’re in. Each group’ll pick a cave, we’ll sweep then meet back in the main tunnel before moving forward. Those of you who can, make sure you keep an ear out for anything, especially movement in the main tunnel when we’re doing sweeps. Any questions?”

A few ‘no’s and head shakes. Dwight nods and rolls up the map. “Alright, let’s go.”

The swim trunks might be useful for transforming, but they sure do make him feel a tad underprepared compared to how heavily armed some of the Guard are; even Nathan’s carrying his sword—Duke kind of knows the name, but even thinking it makes his head hurt so he’s never really tried to keep it in his head.

At the mouth of the cave they pause, Duke and a few others listening intently before shaking their heads. No one’s nearby at least. Once they step into the cave they start moving even slower, doing their best to keep noise down just in case. Considering what’s been going on Duke’s not willing to bet Wade can’t hear them if they’re not quiet.

The tide’s coming in at least; and while it doesn’t reach the cave, the sounds of the waves are loud enough to cover up most of the quiet sounds.

They reach the halfway mark sooner than expected, the worn smooth rock turning into more uneven footing. As planned they split up into three groups, breaking off into different offshoots to search.

Duke’s group doesn’t find anything, and neither do the others from the head shaking that goes around when they meet back up—then again the fact that they _did_ meet back up is telling enough in Duke’s mind, if any of them _had_ found Wade and the Lilim he’d expect there to be a lot more noise. Together they move on to the next trio.

As the get towards the end of the caves Duke starts to worry, the sounds of the waves this far back aren’t as loud, and he would have thought _someone_ would have heard something by now at the very least. But it’s quiet and still. He’d call it a wild goose chase if the info hadn’t come from the fairies—although it could be misdirection, just as bad as a lie in this case, yet he found himself doubting it.

Reaching the last two offshoots they break into three again, one for each tunnel and one to watch the main one. Duke’s group takes the one on the left.

It’s a bit more extensive than the earlier ones, but it still only takes them a few minutes to explore it all. They’re on their way out when shouting reaches their ears.

Not giving himself time to think Duke dashes headfirst towards the sound, hurried footsteps following after. They burst into the main tunnel to find it empty, and just faintly he can hear sounds of a struggle going on in the right hand tunnel.

He doesn’t exactly want to, but he hold back for a second. “Carlos, Peter, Kylee, I want you to stay in the tunnel just in case. One of you needs to be ready to head back to Haven if this all goes south.” Duke hopes it won’t come to that, but backup plans need to happen.

The three of them nod and move a short ways back towards the entrance. All the others trail after him as he begins to sneak down the right hand tunnel, wanting to get the lay of the fight before throwing himself into it.

Well it certainly looks bad. Most of the Guard are out cold, or at least that’s what Duke hopes. Nathan’s still up, and from the looks of it Dwight’s gone Berserk.

But it’s not Wade they’re facing off against, it’s...well it looks a lot like Jonathan Corey, the first person Wade had killed. Which makes the whole scene slightly absurd, Nathan and Dwight being held off by a portly man in his sixties. Still, it’s not exactly something he can laugh at. “You all start getting everyone out,” he turns enough to see nods of agreement.

He lets them head in before him, moving to an out of the way spot where he can transform and not worry about people stumbling over him. Taking a deep breath he closes his eyes and pulls himself inward.

Usually he takes his time with his shift, but he can’t afford to. So it hurts a little, pushing his body faster than it should go. But he can bear it well enough. He finishes in record time and letting himself watch the flow of battle once more he dives in, managing to catch not!Jonathan across the shoulder.

The...man, turns his mouth opens, and keeps opening. Even though he doesn’t have the time for such thoughts he finds himself reminded of _The Scream_ , and indeed the sound that escapes the man’s mouth is a sound worthy of that painting.

It thrusts itself right into his mind, sharp and piercing; causing him to recoil in pain and in an effort to get away from the sound. It doesn’t help that the acoustics of the cave make the sound last longer than it has a right to, the sound building and building upon itself as the soundwaves rebound off the walls and run into each other.

Squinting—although what closed eyes will do to help a distant part of Duke doesn’t know—he can see that at least Dwight and Nathan are in the same boat. But it looks like the few of the remaining Guard are worse off than they are.

A shadowed blur passes by them and someone manages a shout out in the main tunnel, although how Duke manages to hear it above the still echoing scream is beyond him. He even hears a gun go off, he doubts it did much good.

After what feels like forever the scream begins to die off. Nathan’s the first on his feet, no surprise there, he checks Dwight over before coming to hunch by Duke. “You okay?”

Duke manages a nod, it was bad sure, but considering Nathan in his angelic form had turned him _deaf_ ringing ears he can deal with. He still wishes Nathan would give him a brief touch—although he knows why the other man doesn’t—before heading off to check on the more human Guard.

Soon enough, but not as quickly as he’d’ve liked, Duke’s back on his feet as well. Casting around he tries to find Wade’s scent; he hadn’t been part of the attack, which doesn’t bode well for him being here, but Duke has to try.

Catching the most recent trail Duke follows it, his whole body tensed for a fight. He follows the scent down towards the end of the tunnel.

There he finds an unkempt pile of bedding, as well as a pile of MERs. The scent leads to the bedding. Using his snout he pushes aside some of the dirty rags.

Shock flutters through him and he finds himself changing back into human form as he stares at his older brother. Wade’s heart is beating, just barely. And the rest of him looks just about as sick, pale skin covered in sweat, it’s clammy too when Duke reaches out to touch him.

“Oh Wade.” Without a second thought he reaches out and scoops his brother up, eager to get him out of this place.

-

Audrey chews on a nail as they all try to digest what Nathan’s just told them all. _“I didn’t say anything earlier, because I wasn’t sure if the queen had been right in calling that thing a Lilim_.” She understands that, but part of her thinks that if he’d mentioned any of it earlier then what went down in the cave would have gone down differently.

“So you’re telling us?” Dwight says slowly, as if trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. “That Adam’s first wife, who wasn’t Eve, left Eden and had sex with a bunch of...somethings and all those offspring now try to bring down humanity by making deals that always blow up in the person’s face? _That’s_ what we’re dealing with?”

Nathan nods, taking a sip of his coffee. “In a nutshell. And it fits with what we’ve been encountering with Wade. Only a Lilim, or something far older, would have the power to turn a werewolf into basically a human for most of the time. And why we’ve been having weird dreams about things we, supposedly, want.”

Curious then, to realize that this Lilim had only tried to tempt Nathan once, and _given up_ at that—perhaps it was only because Nathan was still technically an angel, he’d be far older than any Lilim and better able to resist, but Audrey found herself questioning that thought. Out of all of them he was perhaps the one who wanted most, even if Nathan wasn’t cognizant of all those wants.

Yet now’s not the time to really focus on that train of thought, they can all try to parse it out later when they’re not trying to head off disaster. “But wearing Corey’s skin?” A shiver passes through her, it’s not quite fear, but there’s an element of that in her; a lot of anger too.

“True Lilim can’t create, they can only take and ‘give’. Which was why I thought the queen might be wrong, a lot of beings for the past few hundred years have started, wrongly, to use the term ‘Lilim’ to reference _any_ supernatural creature; especially those in religious circles. And with it being a creature of spirit if it wants to become corporeal it’s got to take a body or skin, it can’t make it itself.”

“Driscoll’s account of Mara,” Duke sounds thoughtful as he mentions it. But he’s right, she’d almost forgotten about that, how he’d called Mara a ‘lilim’. The term hadn’t seemed important back then, although now she finds herself vaguely insulted.

Again she gets herself back on track. “So how do we kill it?”

Nathan shrugs. “I honestly don’t know. I mean when I was a full angel all I had to do was use my sword on them, holy fire tends to kill everything. But that’s not exactly an option.” When Nathan’d been recovering they’d talked about it and agreed that under no circumstances were they going to try and bring forth Nathan’s angelic nature again, they all had too much to lose by trying to do so.

“Great,” Dwight gives a sigh. “Guess we’re not done with research just yet then. What’re we going to do about Wade?” Right now he was in the hospital with James, he hadn’t come out of his coma—at least that’s what the doctors were calling it—yet, but they were optimistic that given time he would.

“James thinks in a few days it’ll be safe to bring him out of the coma, we need to have a trial, even if it’s just the council.” She doesn’t plan on budging from that stance, it might be easier just to kill him now, but it wouldn’t be _right_. “If we can break him from the Lilim’s hold so much the better.” Although much like killing a Lilim she doesn’t think any of them have any idea how to go about that. But they can at least try.

“Should we be worried about more deaths?” Duke’s expression is thoughtful.

Nathan shrugs. “I don’t think so, from what I can remember Lilim don’t get their hands dirty themselves unless they have to, they like to work through other people. Apparently it’s ‘more fun’ that way,” it’s hard to miss the disgust in Nathan’s tone, but she agrees.

“I know it might create a panic, but I think we should let everyone know, that way we don’t have someone making a deal without realizing it.” It’s a risky move but Audrey knows it’ll be safer for Haven. “At the very least it might help hold off whatever the Lilim might have planned while we finish dealing with Wade.” And if that went according to plan they’d get a few days rest as well. Which she’d happily welcome.

There’s a moment of silence before Duke chimes in, “so then, which of us is gonna talk to the Teagues, the only feasible way we’ll reach most of the population by tomorrow.”

All four of them share looks, sending up a childish chorus of ‘not it’.

-

Nathan bites back something akin to a groan as he steps out of the _Herald_ building and back into his Bronco.

At least it hadn’t gone as bad as it could’ve, and the Teagues had agreed to print the statement. They’d just have to cross their fingers that it would be enough to stave off the Lilim. On the other hand talking to the Teagues had probably been the easier of the two jobs, considering Audrey had also made note of the Lilim’s interest in Arla’s baby and that perhaps they should get her out of town for a few days.

He’d take dealing with the Teagues every time.

Now all it comes down to is waiting until Wade’s well enough and give him the trial he deserves—although a large part of Nathan would rather just kill him and have it be done with. Even if the idea doesn’t sit well with Duke and Audrey it _would_ just erase part of the problem; but he’ll hold himself back because it’s what they want.

But also because he’s afraid of himself. He’s always had a protective urge, but it seems that ever since Audrey arrived in Haven last year it’s been amplified, even moreso these past few months. Honestly he’s more afraid that he accepts it, than of the actual urge itself.

With a sigh he starts the Bronco and pulls out into traffic, right now he should focus on resting up, they won’t have a lot of time before things start getting...busy again.


	15. Chapter 15

Wade wakes up, to find himself tied to a chair. There’s a bag over his head and he finds panic clawing at his throat, he’s seen enough horror movies to have a good idea of what’s to happen. Around him there’s a murmur of voices, and despite the fact there’s probably someone watching him he struggles in an attempt to break free.

The chatter stops, and seconds later the bag’s being pulled off.

He blinks to orient his eyes. Something like shock filling him when he realizes he’s in a _courtroom_. Looking around his eyes take in everything, pinpointing people. Duke’s boyfriend Nathan—look Wade knows the signs, and really it’s a wonder they can keep their hands off each other—that Detective Parker, the one he’d attacked when he first got here. A blond giant, who he’s seen before but has never been properly introduced to, a lanky dark haired young man who looks vaguely like Nathan; brother or cousin maybe?

There’s another woman, African-American, the pen in her hand makes him feel like she’s here to take notes. The other two men stand out slightly, one looks a priest, and the other is facing _away_ from everyone else.

Finally there’s Duke, with a bag in his hands.

“What the fuck is going on?” They’ve got no right to do this to him, whatever it is they’re planning. It unsettles him to think that his own _brother_ could betray him; Wade’s not certain _how_ but it’s clear something’s going on. Some weird Wicker Man thing? Although he’d like to hope that most Americans wouldn’t believe in human sacrifice. Whatever it is, it’s clear there’s a conspiracy of _some_ sort.

No one answers for a heartbeat. Then: “Wade Abner Crocker,” it’s the man facing backwards that speaks. “You’ve been brought before us today for the harm you’ve committed to Haven and it’s citizens, however unknowingly. This is not a trial, but it is judgement.”

Something like dread curdles in Wade’s stomach, and his ever present headache returns.

“James,” Detective Parker says softly. In response Nathan’s possible relative steps forward. His head reaches out and Wade braces himself for a slap or punch. Instead all that happens is James rests the back of his hand against Wade’s forehead, like he’s checking for a fever.

When his hand pulls away Wade’s headache is gone, completely.

Somehow that’s more frightening than anything else.

“Chief Wuornos, the charges?” The man facing the other way asks.

Nathan stands before speaking. “The murders of Jonathan Corey, and Marissa Zenik here in Haven, I inquired with New York City police and discovered three other deaths with the same MO as the ones here.”

“Murder? You’re accusing me of murder? Do you even have evidence? Of is this just a kangaroo court?” He’s never killed anyone in his _life_ and they’re saying he’s somehow unknowingly killed _five_ people? It’s ludicrous is what it is. They’re all insane, something in the water perhaps? It has to be for this many people to be sharing the same delusion. “This is _wrong_ , you know that right?”

None of them respond, Nathan sits down.

Duke drops the bag in his hands and takes a step forward. “I’d also like to add neglect of self and of his children Jean and Daniel. Oh and theft of dangerous property.”

“I object to those charges,” the priest speaks up. “He did nothing wrong with seeking a way free of his monstrosity. He should be commended.”

“Even though it caused five deaths and who knows how much harm to two kids?” Duke snaps back.

“At least he tried,” the priest responds.

“Enough!” The man facing the other way turns around finally. And wow, Wade’s never been one for guys, but he’s kind of amazing. “Reverend Driscoll if you would keep personal opinions out of this it would be appreciated.”

Even this Driscoll guy looks a bit starry-eyed. “Of course Mayor.”

In her seat Parker gives a small sigh. “Mayor, if you please?” Her amusement is strange considering the Mayor hasn’t said anything funny, although Wade has no doubt this guy had some _great_ jokes.

“Of course,” the mayor turned around and Wade almost called out for him not too, clearly this guy shouldn’t be listening to Parker. Or at least that’s how Wade felt until the Mayor had completely turned around.

“What the fuck?” How the hell was that possible? All the Mayor had done was turn around and suddenly everyone was in love with him? That, that didn’t make _sense_.

Duke gives a soft sigh. “This is what happens when you let someone fuck with your brain Wade.” With those cryptic words he takes an empty seat next to Parker.

“We’ll accept the charges of child neglect and theft Duke, but not neglect of self. Mr. Crocker here made his choice as the Reverend said, although he clearly failed to think through the implications of that choice.”

“Again,” Wade can feel his teeth grinding against one another. “I repeat ‘what the fuck’? What choice?” How the hell is he going to get free? Who could he trust to tell if all these people so high up are insane?

“Unfortunately,” the African-American woman speaks. “We don’t know the particulars, although we have a guess.” He watches her rifle through some papers. “Soon after your arrival in Haven some of our citizens began having strange dreams, ones in which they were shown something they could conceivably want, and were told they could have it, for a price. Do you recall ever having such dreams Mr. Crocker?”

Her cold brown eyes seem to pin him in place. “Maybe, but what the hell do weird dreams have to do with anything? Everyone dreams about things they wish they could have.”

“They have to do with everything,” Parker speaks up. “When you say yes and it _happens_. Honestly we don’t care _when_ you made the deal, only that you did. Your memories changed, you lost your abilities, and you gained the normal life you probably always wanted. Who knows what the Lilim got in return. Some control over you possibly, and it seemed to have no problem following you here and then causing problems for us.” The dispassion in her voice is almost as frightening as that James’ headache stealing mojo.

“Memories? Abilities?” Wade tries to hold in his laughter and fails. “This place is fucked up. How has anyone not noticed yet?” Someone else has to have, maybe they were silenced like Wade feels he soon might be.

Duke stands again, he looks Wade in the eyes as he begins speaking. “Wade Abner Crocker, born August 5 to Simon and Rebecca Crocker in the year of our lord 1731.” Wade closes his eyes and shakes his head, the headache returning. He hears footsteps but Parker’s voice stops them—perhaps James wanting to stop the headache again, but if so why did Parker stop him? “At the age of twenty you left Haven to fight against the British in the Revolutionary War, I’m told you had quite the military career, even spent some time with the Culper spies. At least that’s what your letters to mom say.” Wade finds he doesn’t like the note of derision in Duke’s voice.

Also how the fuck could he be almost three hundred years old? He’s a freaking human _being_. “I wouldn’t know of course, because when you left you never came home. Except right before mom died of yellow fever, but I was only two then. But I remember how angry that made dad, ‘ _pack always stays together Evander,’_ probably one of the few good things he ever taught me. That’s why he wrote you out of the will. It all went to me even though I was only eight. Didn’t you ever wonder about that? Or are those memories of yours so slapdash that you never even thought about it?”

Wade tries to double over, but his bindings prevent that. His headache’s somehow getting worse. It feels like something trying to burst through his brain, and with the madness going on around him he wouldn’t be surprised if something was, metaphorically speaking.

“I think something’s wrong with _you_ Duke, I sure as hell wasn’t born in 1731, the ancestor I was named after was. And of course Dad didn’t put me in the will, he always liked you better. His perfect little son,” Wade finds himself sneering it. Their father always had favored Duke, for reasons Wade couldn’t fathom.  _Wade_ had been the one who’d made sure the bills were paid and that the house stayed at least marginally livable, _Wade_ had been the one who’d fought for what he believed in, even though it had broken their mom’s heart to see him off to war.

 _“You walk out that door you’ll still be family Wade, but don’t think for a second that makes you_ pack. _It doesn’t matter if we’re ‘free’ or still under the thumb of the British, we look after_ our _town, the rest of the world can go hang itself.”_ Simon’s words that night ring in his ears and he gives a shake of his head. No, that wasn’t how it’d gone at all.

He and dad had argued, but it’d been about mom and looking after Duke, not that they had to stick together and look after Haven. And honestly what had Haven ever done for them? A murdered grandfather? Respect that was really more like fear?

The sound of wood snapping reaches his ears, as do shouts, before Nathan and Parker’s voices calm them. He curls up into himself, clutching his head and sobbing from the pain. Right now he thinks he’d welcome whatever strange power James had used earlier; because this is impossible to bear for long.

A _howl_ leaves him and he finds his body begins to contort as the pain moves from his head into his whole body. He’s pretty sure he hears bones _breaking_ , but no one helps him. He shouts at them, at least until his voice stops working, but he still snarls and snaps; what kind of monsters are they to just _watch_. And what the fuck did they do to him?

He keeps struggling until his whole body seems to give out. Lying there panting on the floor he watches as Duke finally approaches him, with a mirror in hand. “Maybe now you’ll believe me.”

Duke holds the mirror out, giving Wade a good look at himself.

Except it’s not Wade staring back at him in the mirror.

It’s a wolf. Dark black-brown fur, silver eyes.

But no, some part of him wants to shy away, the rest can only look in fascinated horror; because it’s not a wolf. The features are too...different from what he remembers from the wolves at the zoo. Not a wolf then, but a...werewolf.

One last jab of blinding pain goes through him, and it’s like someone broke down a door instead his head.

 _The fire in his father’s office is roaring, if it were a family ability Wade would think it was responding to his father’s anger. “Wade this is foolish, who rules over us hardly matters._ Haven _matters, the people we’ve been charged with looking after matter. That Jezebel,” his father sneers. “Matters more than this foolish war.”_

_Wade battles down the wolf inside him, he’s better than that. “It does matter father.”_

_._

_New York is a bustle as always, but Wade weaves through it with long practiced ease. He breaths deep, relishing the fact that he can smell no better than a human can—the witch he’d gone to might not have been able to remove whatever made him a wolf, she could suppress his senses, for now that would have to be enough._

_He ducks into his favorite coffee shop, running into someone right as he steps in, as he falls he finds himself biting back a smile, how human of him._

_._

_Things with Marie are going well, but he fears one day she’ll discover his secret. That she’ll discover what a monster he is._

_“What would you give to be free of it?” A seductive voice murmurs in his head. “What would you give to be human?”_

Anything _._

 _A laugh. “Then we have a deal. You will be human, and the wolf that will sleep inside you will be_ mine _.” Even though the voice has no face, he can still somehow see smugness. “Not that you’ll remember that.”_

On and on the memories keep coming, three hundred years of them.

It’s probably a good thing he’s already prone on the floor, otherwise he would have fallen to it. Rough fingers dig into the ruff of his fur, claws digging in painfully, helping him to focus on the _now_ and at least begin to escape the memories. His eyes focus on Duke’s eyes, which are as silver as his own. “Christ Wade, you’re worse than your kids. _Focus_.” The words thrum through Wade. “Your human form’s still inside you. Reach for it damn it.”

Wade doesn’t know how but he does. And oh, it’s a relief to have arms and legs, the air cool against his skin, seconds later Duke’s shoving clothes at him and he gratefully takes them, everyone at least has the decency to turn away as he dresses.

“Well,” the Mayor speaks. “Now that you’ve returned to us Mr. Crocker we may continue. You have been charged, and now it is time for the verdict. We will vote, clemency or death. Reverend?”

“Clemency,” the Reverend answers.

“Death,” the African-American woman, human, he can _smell_ it now. And Wade finds he hates it just as much as before.

“Death,” Nathan says, and it’s hard for Wade to miss the hurt look that flashes across Duke’s face.

“Clemency,” Detective Parker says, bringing the vote to a tie again.

Duke’s eyes are back to their usual brown as he looks at Wade again. “Clemency.”

“Clemency,” the blond man says.

Which takes them back to the mayor. “And my vote is death, but we are outvoted it seems.”

James didn’t vote, but Wade bites his tongue against asking why. Right now the vote’s in his favor and he shouldn’t question it.

“So then Mr. Crocker you are spared death, but clemency does not mean you are free to leave. There is still payment to be had for the deaths you caused.”

Wade wants to protest, but the mayor’s right, in his need to be human he’d given himself up, let himself be used as a weapon. He hunches in on himself. “There will be a transfer of funds from your accounts to the families of those you killed here in Haven to the amount of ten thousand each. You will also tell us everything you can about the Lilim you made the deal with.”

“He should also transfer power of attorney over Jean and Daniel Crocker,” Duke speaks up, his voice almost in a rush. There’s a brief murmur of surprise between most of them, excepting the blond man, Parker, and Nathan.

“To yourself Duke?” the mayor asks.

Duke shakes his head. “No, to my daughter Jennifer Mason and Dwight Hendrickson.”

“Mr. Crocker?” Wade gives himself a shake.

“I,” he finds himself struggling to answer. On the one hand he hates what he is, can he really look after his children when he’s like that? But they’re _his_ kids, he fought tooth and nail with Marie to make sure of that—because you knew they wouldn’t be human, some part of him points out.

Parker takes a step towards him. “Instead of making that part of his punishment what if we do it in exchange for something?”


	16. Chapter 16

All eyes are focused on Audrey, but she can’t let herself waver now. Not when there might be a way to at least try and make things right.

“What do you suggest detective?” mayor Brody asks.

She takes a deep breath and looks at Wade, who looks a mess, but that’s understandable. “Wade signs over any and all rights to his children, and in return James and I will do our best to make him as human as possible.”

Like with Duke’s suggestion it sends another murmur of surprise through the rest of the council. But it’s a good suggestion.

“I’m not sure I could do that with my powers alone,” James admits.

“So we’ll use aether.” A few months ago Conli had visited to collect all the aether that William had left behind, but Audrey had held some back. Back then she hadn’t been quite sure _why_ she should do that, but she’d been paranoid enough to think that maybe Conli’s reasons for wanting it all weren’t all that altruistic. Perhaps it’d been some small sliver of Mara inside her.

Either way she had some, and it _should_ be enough, hopefully to do it _right_.

“I agree,” Wade responds. Duke looks relieved, and Audrey herself breaths a sigh of relief.

“I’ll need some time to get the aether.” She hadn’t exactly put it in an easily accessible spot, more paranoia, more than she’s used to honestly.

Even though all she sees is the back of mayor Brody’s head she still can tell he nods. “Then we have time to confer with him about this Lilim before you begin. As well as draw up the necessary documents.”

Well at least she’ll get away from the boring paperwork. “Do you want to come with me James?” He’s only here in an unofficial capacity and probably doesn’t want to hang around for all the boring stuff either.

“Sure,” before he goes to her he stops at Nathan’s side and has a brief quiet conversation with him. When they go home tonight she’s sure there’s going to be a _lot_ of talking between the three of them about Nathan’s vote. It had caught her off guard even though it shouldn’t have—Nathan had proved before that he was willing to kill to keep her safe, and since she was Haven...well it wasn’t a big leap to make.

They leave a few minutes later; she’s not sure if it’s pettiness or just practicality that they take the Bronco, but she decides not to really care about it right now.

As they head south the both of them are quiet, Audrey’s focused on the aether, but it’s not hard to guess what James’ thoughts are on. Arla and their daughter.

Much to Audrey’s surprise it had been easy to convince Arla to leave town for a week or so—with Jennifer and the kids accompanying her—she had at least expected something like a fight. Arla didn’t seem like the sort of woman who’d just willingly run away, even if for a brief time, to let others deal with the problem.

Or maybe Audrey’s just projecting.

“Something wrong?” James’ voice gives her a start, and she almost misses the turnoff.

Still she finds a brief smile flick across her face at the question. “I’m just...I think it’d be nice to go back to when I didn’t know what it meant to be Haven’s Lar.” Back when she could throw herself headfirst into a fight and not worry about what might happen if she’s hurt. “I don’t like being sidelined.” She’d born it with gritted teeth when they’d stormed the cave, but with what looks like another showdown coming up with the Lilim; she’d rather not avoid it if she had the choice.

James nods instead of answering. She feels a bit better for having gotten that off her chest, although perhaps tonight instead of dreaming about her past lives tonight she’ll dream about not being bound to Haven—but better she be tempted than someone else who doesn’t know what’s going on.

“Kick’em Jenny?” She’d wondered when he was going to realize where they were going.

“I know, but no one comes out here and it seemed like a good place to hide it.” It had certainly been strange coming back here after everything.

Finally she parks, and as she climbs out she grabs her phone. Opening up the map application she puts in the GPS coordinates for the spot; not quite an ‘x marks the spot’ but probably works better. “This way,” she says as she heads out, heading towards the little pin that marks the spot on her screen.

They get there about five minutes later and Audrey shuts off her phone before going up to the old snag and reaching into the fissure in the bark. Her fingers brush against nut shells—a squirrel must have used this for winter storage—and some bones—perhaps that same squirrel—before curling around the thin canister that held the aether. Getting a good grip she pulls it out. “Aright,” now she and James just need to figure out how to use the aether to change Wade.

“Hey mom,” it’s less off putting now to have James call her that then it had been before, but it still manages to catch her off guard.

“Yes?” she responds as they head back to the Bronco.

James doesn’t continue right away, but she can be patient. “What if I used some of the aether to change your bond with Haven? Or at least tried to. If Jenny and I can break bonds, then I, or maybe we, should be able to change them too.”

“I think I’d like that a lot James.” Turning her head she smiles at him.

-

Duke’s a whole mess of emotions still when Audrey and James return. There’s relief that things with Wade are going better than he’d hoped, some lingering hurt and anger over Nathan’s vote to kill Wade, which clashes with his own urge to kill his brother. Hope that now with Jennifer and Dwight looking after the twins they can really start working on training and helping them. And a little bit of pride that Audrey possibly found a way to tie a chunk of it all into a nice bow.

“Okay,” Audrey steps into the empty circle of the courtroom, James a step behind. She starts unscrewing the canister in her hands and Duke feels apprehension, but does his best to put it aside; reminding himself that aether can’t do evil on it’s own.

“Thank you Reverend for agreeing to be our...template for this.” The two of them share brief nods and something in Duke finds that vastly amusing considering Sarah. “Wade,” she turns her attention back to his brother. “We’re not exactly sure how long this is going to take, or if it’ll hurt you. So if you’d like James can put you under and we can wake you up when it’s done.”

Wade takes a few deep breaths and Duke can all but smell uncertainty coming from him. “I’d...I’d like to stay conscious.”

“Aright.” She agrees. Upending the the canister she catches the lump of aether that falls out. “Then Dwight, Duke, can you be nearby to hold him down?”

He and Dwight share a look. “You take left and I’ll take right?”

“It worked out well enough the last time,” Dwight responds with a snort. That’s certainly the spirit.

They take up their positions as Audrey breaks the aether into chunks, handing two to James before putting the rest of the aether away and tossing the closed canister at Nathan. “Okay,” she takes one of the aether chunks from James and rolls it in her hands. “You spread it out like this,” she instructs quietly. “Since you’ve got experience with this I’ll let you lead, I’ll just be there for reinforcement and support.”

James nods, but before copying Audrey he goes up to the Rev and they, well it looks like they shake hands; but Duke’s sure it’s more than that. When the pull apart James gives a brief nod and heads back to Audrey, rubbing aether in his hands. There is something frightening in seeing those ashy covered hands, the last time he’d seen them, well… He shakes it off as best he can, even if it makes sense as a fear.

His hands reaching out James puts one on either side of Wade’s face and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. A second later Audrey’s putting one hand on James and the other on Wade’s neck. It looks vaguely awkward and something about that makes Duke snort.

Wade’s eyes are staring out unseeing and Duke hopes his body’ll remember to blink, otherwise he might be uncomfortable when he comes back to himself—granted in the long run it’s probably no big deal. But the lack of reaction makes him relax some, although he still keeps an eye on them, Dwight too, even if he and Kat are deep in conversation about some meeting tomorrow with the Guard and their outreach program.

“How you doing?” Nathan’s concern is nice, but some of that lingering anger over his vote returns, Duke grits his teeth for a moment so he doesn’t snap at him.

“I’ve been better, be glad when this is over.” He’s got his fingers crossed that when Wade leaves town the urge to kill him will go away too.

Next to him Nathan gives a small sigh. “Look, I’m not going to apologize for my vote. I thought it was the best option to deal with the problem,” at least he’s keeping his voice low. The Rev might have left now that the trial was over and James didn’t need him for the template thing, but there are still people who’ve got no right to their problems in the room. “I hadn’t realized Audrey’d kept some of the aether, or that she’d be able to use it like, this.”

“I didn’t know either,” Duke exhales slowly through his teeth. It’ll be better for them to have a longer conversation in private, but it’s nice that Nathan’s trying to at least get some of the mending done now. “But just because I’ve got the urge to kill Wade doesn’t mean I _want_ him dead, by my hand or anyone else’s Nathan, he’s still my brother. Stupid fucking mistakes and all.”

Nathan’s shoulder bumps his and it’s nice how comforting that is. “We’ll get through this, the Guard’ll get your brother settled back in New York, from what I’ve heard Lizzie’s over the moon about the idea of new siblings.” Duke’s heard it too, many times. But it still manages to bring a real smile to his face.

A noise draws his attention back to Wade, Audrey, and James. He sees Wade’s shoulder twitch and it might be nothing, but better safe than sorry. He’s glad Dwight’s only a step behind.

Just in time too. Wade starting to twitch in earnest, his skin...roiling as fur appears and disappears, they hold his arms behind his back and Duke grimaces at the feel of claws digging into his arm, vanishing, only to dig in again a heartbeat later.

Still they manage to keep the thrashing down, and James and Audrey don’t react at all; which Duke’ll count as a success.

But whatever James seems to be doing is...working? The rapid shift from skin to fur and back slows before stopping altogether. Wade’s breathing is ragged, but he otherwise looks fine. There’s something weird about his scent, but Duke expects that considering the situation. After the struggling dies down he and Dwight linger for another minute or so, just in case it starts up again.

When it doesn’t they step back, and Duke hopes that was the worst of it.

There’s a flash of surprise when Nathan takes his hand, but it’s a nice one. Nathan’s hand feels warm and sure in his, and it’s more comforting than Duke had thought it would be.

It might take some work, but together they’ll get through this, Duke believes that.

-

James staggers when he pulls away from Wade, grateful that Duke and Nathan manage to catch him. Though it does give him something resembling amusement—right now he feels too exhausted to feel _actual_ emotions—to see the struggle on their faces when Audrey stumbles too.

Dwight catches her easily, and it’s a nice release to all the tension to hear her say. “I hope it’s okay that I don’t kiss you in thanks Dwight.”

Despite Wade wanting to be conscious for the whole thing, he’s unconscious now. The work he and Audrey did probably wearing him out. But James knows it’s better that way, it’ll give his body time to adjust to the changes.

“Did it work?” The mayor’s voice is somehow both distant and curious. But then again James think’s it’s better than the mayor’s constant cheeriness out in public.

It takes a bit of effort to get the strength to talk. “I think so. We definitely managed to suppress his senses and his ability to shift. I didn’t feel confident enough to try and alter his memories, so he’ll still have them all. But it’s probably better that way. Less likely to make the same mistakes again. I don’t know how long it’ll last though, at least a year, hopefully a lot longer than that.” But if not, well, it’ll just have to be a semi-regular thing, like going to the doctor’s for a checkup.

“Good work. Dwight can you take Mr. Crocker to the hospital and see that he’s looked after? As for the rest of you we’ll meet again next week.”

“Think you can walk?” Dad asks.

James thinks about it for a second then nods. “But one of you should probably stay close, just in case.”

They let go and thank God James manages to stand on his own two feet. Another bout of almost amusement passes through him as he watches Duke and Nathan do rock paper scissors. Duke wins and goes to grab Audrey from Dwight, who then goes to grab Wade, Kat trailing behind him still talking as if carrying an unconscious quasi-former werewolf is no big deal.

Taking a deep breath James decides it’s time to risk a step. Dad hovers, but James does pretty well on his own, if a bit more wobbly. “You want anything?”

“Food, a phone call with Arla, and my bed for a whole week probably. And in that order.” Even Audrey manages a laugh.

Together they all start heading out. “I think we can manage that,” Duke responds easily. “I know a place.” Audrey’s hand weakly lands on his shoulder, like she’s trying to give it a slap; it makes James smile to see his mom so happy, she certainly deserves it.

Nathan piles them all into the Bronco and the head towards the Gull. James finally letting himself enjoy the feeling of satisfaction that’s started to grow in him. They might not have gone so far as change Wade’s species, but they’ve certainly done something most would consider impossible. And done it well, he hopes. But only time will tell in that case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't follow my writing tumblr (or my actual tumblr) you might want to check out [this post](http://kaelthewriting.tumblr.com/post/160518627986/soooooo), which will definitely have some bearing on this 'verse...eventually.


	17. Chapter 17

Nothing is a glorious thing to do, Nathan thinks. Especially after the last few days they’ve had. They’ve had time to recuperate, but he _still_ feels tired and worn out, granted it’s more mental than physical. But it’s not exactly pleasant either way.

Audrey slips back into bed with him, hands full of steaming coffee mugs. “Careful,” she says as Duke unwinds himself from around Nathan. “I’d rather not spill.”

It brings a smile to Nathan’s face as both he and Duke take mugs. Nathan tests his coffee, just to make sure it’s still hot before taking a sip. Mmm, she’d put hazelnut syrup in it. All three of them drink in quiet contemplation, they’ve certainly talked enough over the past few days that silence feels nice.

There hadn’t ever been any fear of them tearing themselves apart after Wade’s judgement, but that hadn’t stopped the conversation from being _hard_. But in the long run Nathan’s knows it’ll be worth it. He just hopes it’s the last of such conversations, while feeling certain it won’t be—so really he can only hope that the next one isn’t for decades at least.

He shifts slightly so that he can lean up against his headboard, stare at the sunlight streaming through his curtains to cast bars of light on the floor and bed.

Audrey manages to finish her coffee first, he hides his smile behind his mug as she lays herself across their legs, cat like, giving a luxurious stretch. His free hand rests on her belly, relishing the feel of her muscles moving. Yet still none of them speak.

At least not until Duke does. “So what do you think the odds are that this Lilim’s left town and we never have to worry about it again? Bets anyone?”

Nathan can feel Audrey’s chest rise slightly as she sighs. “No bet,” there’s a forlorn note in her voice. “It wants our granddaughter for some reason, and I don’t think it’s going to stop until it gets what it wants, or it’s dead.”

While something warms in Nathan’s chest at ‘our granddaughter’ it quickly curdles into dread at the rest of Audrey’s words. “So we kill it.” Although once again he can’t think of a way they could do it. When he’d still been an angel it’d been an easy thing to kill Lilim, even after he’d fallen—they held no love for angels, fallen or unfallen, and sought to kill them. But now?

“Easier said than done,” Audrey’s words echo his thoughts. “If I thought she might give us an answer I’d ask Conli, but I’m willing to bet that she won’t even respond in the first place.” He rubs his thumb against her ribs in comfort, and he watches Duke’s free hand lace with her own.

Duke leans his cheek against Nathan’s shoulder, and Nathan leans his head atop Duke’s. “So I know it’s my fault for bringing it up, but we should definitely move onto happier topics. We still haven’t decided on a wedding gift for Arla and James. We’ve got two more weeks.”

“You call that happier?” Audrey asks with a soft laugh. Duke rolls his eyes. “Usually I’d say with everything going on they’d postpone, but knowing Arla she’ll storm hell if it means that the wedding happens on time.”

They all laugh a little at that. Nathan certainly admires that in Arla, that she’s willing to do a lot to make sure things go the way she wants them too. And in a way a wedding after all of this will be nice. Something to look forward to.

“Never been to many weddings,” what with most of them in Haven taking place in holy places of one sort of another. “Is there such a thing as too big a gift?”

A smile curls on Audrey’s lips. “With us? I don’t know. It’s not like there’s some sort of competition to give them the best present ever, it just needs to be...honest.” That makes sense, although doesn’t really help with the decision making process.

“House?” Nathan suggests, deciding he might as well throw it out there. They certainly could use the space if their conversations about kids are anything to go by, even with three of them James’ apartment would probably be too small.

Duke’s laughter ghosts across Nathan’s chest, making his skin prickle. “Well no one will ever accuse you of thinking small Nate, kinda curious what you’ll do for _our_ anniversary if you’re giving your son and daughter-in-law a house.”

Nathan doesn’t fight the blush stealing across his cheeks, but really he hasn’t had a chance to think about what he’ll get them, not with everything that’s been going on. There’s an unfinished canvas in his art room that he’s been hiding from them. But he’s not sure he’d be able to finish it in time. “What are we setting as our anniversary anyways? The day after the summer solstice or the day we actually had sex?”

Audrey snorts. “Somewhere in the middle? Just throw a dart at a calendar, and whatever date it lands on is it. Because one could make the argument it started at Maggie, or Sarah. I’m kind of glad we don’t have to explain our relationship to anyone, we’re weird.”

Duke laughs. “Okay, I think that’s enough talk. Also the day we had sex, duh. Now come on,” he shifts slightly and tugs at them. “I want to watch Human Planet while we actually still have, like free time and stuff.”

Nathan lets himself be tugged, shaking his head and laughing as they all nearly fall out of the bed naked.

-

Jenny sits on a park bench watching the kids run around and make more noise than she’d think three kids could make. She finds herself vaguely impressed honestly.

“Here,” without fanfare Arla shoves a to-go cup in her face. Jenny quickly takes it.

“Thanks,” popping off the lid she breaths in the hot coffee smell. She doesn’t drink it quite yet, leaning back slightly and relaxing more fully. “So having second thoughts about a hoard of kids?” She gestures to the playground where Lizzie and Jean are trying to either shove each other off some sort of climbing thing or climb _onto_ each other. Daniel’s making something out of bark chips.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Arla smile against the rim of her own cup. “Hell no, are you kidding me?” The smile grows and Jenny finds herself smiling back in response. “I’m loving this, well not being away from James, but,” she shrugs.

But Jenny understands. Right now with this Lilim after Arla it’s better to get her out of the line of fire at the very least. So far neither of them have had weird dreams since leaving Haven, which she’ll count as a win. Taking a deep breath she finally takes her own sip of coffee. “I feel that.” Dwight had called the other day, well more like hijacked James’ quickly growing incoherent call to Arla, and it had been surprising how happy it made her to hear that they were the official guardians of Jean and Daniel.

Then she’d felt bad for feeling happy, because she wouldn’t wish what happened to Wade on anyone really.

“You’ve got your own hoard now, so I’m not sure you should be judging.” Arla’s voice is light.

Jenny shakes her head. “Yeah, but I didn’t have to actually give birth to any of them. I just sort of, got them.” Which is just how she likes it, Mama Mason had been a midwife for their tiny town and Jenny knew more than enough about what could go wrong with births. Adoption is much better in her mind.

“There is that,” Arla agrees. “It’s certainly a much _faster_ way to gather up a hoard.”

Setting her coffee down Jenny can’t help but double over in laughter, just the whole idea of it finally getting to her. “Can you...imagine…” She tries to take a deep breath. “Us...leading an army...of kids?” It’s kind of an adorable image actually, beyond it being funny as all get out.

Arla sniggers, “yes, exactly.”

A shout from Lizzie draws their attention back to the playground Jean’s managed to climb on top of her and with a smile and shake of her head Jenny gets up to go and deal with them.

-

Dwight sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He wishes he could take a break, but finding the Lilim comes first. “And no one’s seen anyone matching Corey’s description?”

“Nope,” Kat looks up from her pile of papers—he wonders if they somehow follow her home and what Claire thinks of them. “So he’s probably holed up where few people go, which basically means the Brambles or the islands.”

A humorless snort leaves him. “So it’s the search for Wade all over again, except this time it’s a being that could technically shed that skin and become an invisible.” Haven never does things by half.

“Glad I’m not in your shoes.” The black look he shoots her probably isn’t as effective as he’d like, also she’s been working for him long enough that she could probably blackmail him and get away with it.

The radio on his desk crackles into life. “Boss?” Jane’s voice isn’t as clear as he’d like, but that’s what he gets for trying to do logistics with Kat while other people searched.

“Go ahead Jane,” he picks up the walkie-talkie.

“Found something, might want to come out and check it out.”

He stands. “Be right over.” He clips the walkie-talkie to his belt. “Wanna come out? Good chance to do real field work.” He’s teasing mostly.

Kat rolls her eyes at him, dark brown fingers quickly gathering her own things. “Fat chance. Being out in anything wilder than a park gives me hives.” A bark of laughter escapes him. “Not even an all-expenses paid honeymoon for Claire and I would get me out there boss. But I’m sure you’ll have more than enough flunkies to order around while you’re ‘enjoying’ the great outdoors.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing out on,” he calls to her back as she exits his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, that Arla and Jenny scene was one of my favorites to write.


	18. Chapter 18

Audrey sighs as she pushes her hair out of her face, and here she’d hoped their brief break would last longer. She’d probably have better luck winning the lottery.

Crouching down she wrinkles her nose at the rotting smell coming from the body Jane’d found yesterday. It’d been torn up, although not as badly as the previous two. Probably owing to the fact that Wade’s still under watch by the Guard, and so the deed this time had to have been done by the Lilim inhabiting Corey’s body. Poor guy, both Corey and the new victim, deserved better.

Behind her she hears muffled coughing. “Stars, forgotten how much I hate the smell of ruptured intestines.” Duke’s voice sounds as muffled as his coughing, and when she turns her head slightly she sees he’s covering his mouth and nose with his shirt, although she doubts it’s doing him much good.

On the other hand it’s probably better than nothing. And she’s finds herself grateful that the smells not so bad for her; granted  ‘not so bad’ is still pretty bad.

But the violence of this attack just goes to show that they’ve angered the Lilim—whether or not that’s a good thing is yet to be seen—especially with this body being out in the open in the middle of town instead of out of the way like the others had been. A declaration if there ever was one.

Of course the question then became: a declaration of what?

Audrey doubts that whatever the answer is it’s not good.

Just around the corner she can hear Nathan talking to reporters, Stan, Rebecca, and Jeremy are standing guard, making sure none of said reporters get a sneak at the body. She doesn’t envy Nathan the task, but she also wishes she were there to help if he needs it. At least he’s got a script of sorts for this.

Eleanor hunches down next to her, tugging gloves on. “Think you’ll be able to find anything?”

It earns Audrey a snort. “Well since that Lilim thing ain’t wearing that freaky ring.” Frightening to think how well Urðrrún worked, and how glad she is that it’s back in Duke’s hands—although whether he’ll keep it is still up for debate. “Pretty sure I’ll find plenty, hopefully enough to help you find the bastard.”

The expletive catches Audrey off guard, not quite what she expects from the ME, but she won’t begrudge it. They’ve all got a right to be angry after all.

“Good,” they at least won’t have to think about running DNA, they know who it is, it’s just a matter of everything else. “I think I’d better rescue Duke before he adds to the evidence.” It would be pointless to remind Eleanor to call them, why wouldn’t she? And honestly Audrey’ll be glad to get away from this sooner rather than later.

Eleanor laughs. “Certainly be appreciated.”

And Duke shoots her a grateful smile as they begin walking off, clearly not trusting him to talk just yet.

“I would have thought you’d have an iron stomach or something.” He’s probably seen his fair share of gruesome things on board ships. They stop briefly to have a chat with Stan, Rebecca, and Jeremy, wherein Audrey bums a bottle of hand sanitizer from Jeremy, before continuing.

Duke shrugs. ”Remembering it and experiencing it are two different things, and anyways the last time I saw something that bad was over a hundred years ago, it’s been a while.” Clearly. She’s certain her own eyes have seen worse—as Sarah at the very least—but it’s still an unpleasant sight. “Hope we get something soon, I need this to be over.”

That makes two of them, reaching over she takes his hand in hers and squeezes, using the other to give a brief wave to Nathan, who gives the barest hint of a smile when he sees it. “How about we get coffee from Black House and wait for Nathan.” Maybe while they wait they’ll actually manage to do something productive, like figure out likely hiding spots for the Lilim, or how it might be getting around with half the town looking for it, or just what the hell they’ll be getting Arla and James for their wedding.

“I could go for that, at least I can stand to smell coffee beans.” She gives a soft huff and a wan smile.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

-

“So what all do Corey, Zenik, and Petersen have in common?” They’ve all gathered in Nathan’s office—in this case ‘all’ includes himself, Duke, Audrey, Dwight, and James—to possibly try and get a lead on why the Lilim is killing people.

Nathan flips through his notes. “Corey had minor precognition, not enough to win him the lottery, but he always knew when to bring an umbrella with him on a seemingly clear day; he worked at the local bookstore. Zenik was a physical therapist at the hospital, and her power was kinetomancy; which helped out with her volunteering at the women’s shelter.” Of the three victims she’d been the newest in town—the Guard having brought her, her fiance, and their two month old in in December—and the one he’d known the most about, considering how many abusers she’d sent to the hospital with broken arms and bruised prides.

“And Petersen was a handyman, not quite sure if his powers had a name, but whatever he fixed tended to _stay_ fixed.”

“So three different places of work, three vastly different powers. But the Lilim doesn’t seem the sort to just pick people at random to kill.” James slumps a little into his seat, and Nathan has the feeling he’s biting back an aggravated sigh.

“It might have a reason,” Audrey points out. “Just not one we can understand or comprehend. But I’m willing to bet the killings make sense to _him_.” Despite having finished it a few minutes ago she still holds her empty coffee cup in hand. Nathan’s not sure he wants to find out what might happen if he takes it from her to throw away.

Duke, stretched out on the couch, snorts. “Which does _us_ a fat lot of good.”

He’s got a point, if they can’t figure out or understand why the Lilim’s chosen these people then they can’t exactly predict who might be next and possibly save them.

“I still think our best bet is to try and find the Lilim, not guess who it might kill next. Although it could be a case of six of one, half dozen of the other.” Nathan bites back a laugh at Dwight’s comment, not exactly the best time for laughing. Considering the look Audrey gives him he’s not sure how successful he is.

“It _does_ feel a bit like we’re just running around with our heads cut off,” Duke agrees. “No offence.” Nathan finds himself sharing a look with Audrey.

“Trying’s better than sitting around on our asses,” Nathan points out. He knows full well Duke knows that, he’s just being prickly because they can’t seem to do anything of substance.

Duke sighs, but doesn’t give anything in the way of tart responses.

“Well we haven’t gotten anymore reports of weird dreams, so either it knows about the notice, or it’s decided to change it’s game. Or it knows that Arla’s not in town anymore,” Audrey’s words are sobering.

“Then either it’s got another reason to be here than my daughter,” iron fills James’ voice and Nathan feels a burst of pride. “Or something’s keeping it here.”

There’s a few moments of silence following James’ words. Until Nathan notices Dwight’s staring at Audrey, his gaze follows the other man’s, and from the way Audrey’s own eyes begin to dart around the two of them are probably not the only ones staring at her. “What?” She snaps. “You think _I’m_ keeping the Lilim here?”

It’s so easy to forget sometimes that Audrey is far more powerful than most of them, even if that power is limited in scope. She certainly never uses said powers, and everything about her is pretty plain human.

“It’s a possibility,” Dwight agrees.

Audrey snorts. “Well trust me, if I _am_ keeping that thing here I’ve certainly go no idea how, if you’re even right.”

Duke pulls himself upright and stands, going over to Audrey and putting his hands on her shoulders, fingers moving to massage her tense muscles. “Dwight’s got a point Audrey,” Nathan watches Duke’s fingers, not quite hyper-focused, but getting there. “We might not like having that thing here, but we can handle it better than most other places, and if it’s trapped here then it can’t touch Arla, not while she’s not here too.”

She blows out a long slow breath, slumping into Duke’s touch just a little. “I know, and if I am the one doing it, then great. But that still doesn’t stop me from being frustrated that I still don’t know about half the things I can do Duke.”

“Perhaps we should all just step back for the day,” Dwight stands. “I’ll talk with the Guard and my crews, see if they’ve noticed anything that might be a connection or clue. Meet back up again later or even tomorrow.”

Part of Nathan wants to refuse the idea, he’s perfectly fine, could just keep working tirelessly until they find the Lilim and somehow kill it. But when he looks at Audrey again she seems exhausted, not like she’s going to fall asleep, but that she’s been pushing herself too much.

They might have had a few days, but clearly it wasn’t enough for her. And with her connection to the town, for all they know each death wears her down; although that hardly seems efficient.

“Alright,” he agrees, giving a little nod to Duke.

“I’ll go with you Dwight, if that’s alright,” James stands too. “I just...need to keep myself occupied right now.”

Dwight gives a wan smile and claps James on the shoulder. “Come on then, can show you how the other half lives.” Nathan snorts, but still manages a smile of his own as the two leave.

With them now alone Nathan stands and goes over to Audrey and Duke, resting his hand on the one of hers still holding the coffee cup. His office is chilly and he hunches his shoulders slightly to try and escape the chill. “Come on,” he takes the coffee cup from her and as sensation vanishes he tosses the cup into the trash. “Let’s get you home.”

“Nap for all of us I think,” Duke agrees. “And a nice big meal.”

Audrey gives a barely there smile. “I don’t think I’ve got enough energy to even argue.” Proof enough that this is draining her.

He watches Duke scoop her up, a wave of fond possessiveness coming over him. A feeling that both is off putting and comforting all in one. But he does his best to shove it aside as he leads the way to the Bronco.

-

Frustration roils in Duke’s belly, making him feel on edge and anxious. He chops faster, the action usually soothing but certainly not helping as much this time.

Upstairs Audrey and Nathan are asleep, but he can’t join them; the need to do _something_ riding him hard. So, that big meal he promised them. At least his employees have the good sense not to bother him in his set aside corner.

He runs out of onion far more quickly than he’d thought he would and for a second he just stares at his empty cutting board, before scooping up the chopped onion and tossing in the pot on the stove. Then garlic, tomatoes; he’d thought the cooking would sooth him like it usually did, but it’s helped less than usual.

“Duke?”

A start of surprise nearly makes him drop his knife—and he has to hold back on berating himself for being so focused, this is the Gull, of _course_ he’d feel safe enough to focus—and he turns to see Audrey in the doorway. He frowns at her. “You should be asleep,” if any of them need it it’s certainly her.

She gives a soft snort and steps towards him, “woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep.” He carefully sets his knife down as she comes up to hug him. “Realized you were gone and came to find you. Pretty sure Nora’s glad I did, think she was afraid of you stabbing someone if they tried to get your attention.”

He opens his mouth to protest, but then closes it. She might be right, he’s all keyed up and an unexpected surprise might have had him acting...erratically. It’s probably a good thing Audrey tried to catch his attention from the door. “Sorry, I’m just…”

“I know,” she squeezes her arms. “With the Lilim to find and Wade leaving tomorrow.”

Duke’d almost forgotten about that honestly, that the Guard were planning on escorting Wade back to New York; in a way it’s a relief, one less thing to worry about. The rest of him still doesn’t understand how Wade could so easily deny what he is, was, _is_ , and seek to change it. The idea’s almost abhorrent to Duke. They were what they were, and no amount of aether could really change that.

“Yeah,” he finally agrees, wrapping his own arms around her. “I want this over with.” He wants everyone safe, Haven to go back to the way it should be, and not living in fear.

For a second Audrey didn’t say anything, just buried her face in his shirt. Then: “what’re you cooking? Smells good.”

A soft huff leaves him. “Tomato soup, there’ll be bacon and grilled cheese too.”

“Mmm.” She smiled up at him as she stepped away. “Although I gotta say I think I’d prefer you to come back upstairs and cuddle.” He couldn’t help but smile as she fluttered her eyelashes in an attempt to be beguiling.

“Alright,” the soup’s at a point where he could stop and it wouldn’t be ruined, just would have to make sure no one tosses it out. Ducking down he gives her a brief kiss. “You head back on up, wanna clean up my mess first.”

Her eyes narrow, “I’m holding you to that Duke, you’re not upstairs in ten minutes I’m coming back down and hauling you up myself.” Despite her severe words she’s smiling.

So he doesn't feel too bad in laughing at the threat, such as it was. “Ten minutes,” he agrees. “Probably even less.”

Pulling away completely she heads back out the door. “Setting my timer,” she shouts back before vanishing completely.

He cleans quickly, and lets Pietro know not to touch the pot, before threading his way out the Gull and up the stairs to Audrey’s apartment.

They still had so much to worry and think about, but Duke also knew they had to take their quiet moments when they could; otherwise they might run out before they knew it.

And Audrey’s happy smile as he walked through the door was definitely a moment he’s willing to take.

-

Needing to do _something_ Audrey finds herself heading back to the Archive, it does always feel a little strange to openly enter a place where she’d first had to sneak in. The main door is wide open so Audrey calls out as she enters. “Hello?”

She hears the thud of books and on instinct rushes towards the sound. Alya looks at her embarrassed, surrounded by books and a cloud of dust, her floral-patterned hijab askew.”Would you like some help?” She gives a wry smile at the other woman, offering her a hand.

“Yes, thank you.” Hauling the other woman up is easy at least. “I seemed to have gotten too caught up in finding references for ocean magic, I hadn’t realized how many books I was carrying,” Alya’s smile is bashful as she fixes her hijab. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Crouching down to pick up books Audrey shrugs. “I was hoping I could do some research on Lars, I mean I’ve done searching on the internet, but…” she drifts off unsure of how to end that statement.

Alya huffs. “I might enjoy the perks of the internet myself, but it’s no substitute for a good library.” Stacking the last book on a nearby shelf Alya twitches her fingers. “Now, lets see what the Archive has for us.”

As always Audrey’s fascinated to watch someone’s special brand of magic being used. Granted, Alya’s isn’t as flashy as some. Still it’s impressive to watch a five nothing woman wander through rows of bookshelves with her eyes closed, hands darting out to grab seemingly random books off the shelves.

Since Alya can’t pay attention to it, occasionally Audrey goes and snatches the books she’s carrying, so a repeat of earlier doesn’t happen—maybe she should suggest hiring an assistant.

In the end the pile isn’t as big as Audrey’d hoped, but it’s also bigger than she’d thought it’d be. Problem was she’d now have to skim through all of them to find whatever mentions of Lar they might have. Alya’s power doesn’t exactly focus, so for all Audrey knows each book only offhandedly mentions the term once.

But she has to hope that’s not the case, and starts scanning the first book she grabs.

“Detective Parker?” Blinking she looks up to see Alya standing in front of her, a concerned look on her face. “You haven’t moved in two hours.”

When Alya mentions that those two hours catch up with her and she grimaces at the aches her body’s gained. “Thanks.” Putting her book and the pencil she’d been writing with down Audrey stands, her body protesting even more. Alya goes back to her own work as Audrey stretches slightly, trying to relieve the pain.

Picking up her notepad she reads over her half-scribbled shorthand. She’s only halfway through the books and she’s only got a page of notes—granted that’s better than she expected.

Most of it’s already stuff she knows, her body being connected to the town, being able to feel her citizens. There’s confirmation that she _can_ trap people and beings within the boundaries of her domain—it’s...not exactly the sort of power she _wants_ to have. And there’s more too, some brief mentions of how to break that sort of bond, how the Lar can gain power.

How to imprison someone.

That one _had_ been only an offhand mention, all the more frustrating by how tantalizing the idea is. If they can’t kill the Lilim now, just imprison it until they _can_ figure out a way. It’d at least buy them time they don’t have right now.

But beyond the mention there’s no _practical_ information on how, so if Audrey wants to do it she’s going to have to muddle her way though and hope for the best. Not exactly what she wants, but she can’t exactly be picky right now. And one idea is better than none.

Now all they have to do is _find_ the damn thing.


	19. Chapter 19

“Boss,” Nathan looks up from his work to see Jeremy at the door, an odd expression on his face.

“Something happen?” His heart leaps into his throat at the thought of Audrey or Duke hurt—even though he knew full well both were safe, hell Audrey was on the other side of a damn wall from him—and he had to hold back an angry snarl.

Jeremy shifts his weight. “There’s ah, woman who just came in who says she was almost killed by the Lilim.”

The next five minutes are an exercise in controlled chaos as everyone assembles in his office—and if some of them break a few traffic laws to do so, well as long as they don’t mention it he won’t think about it.

Nerissa Doorman, age 26, doesn’t look like much, average height, overweight, olive skin, red hair pulled back in a pony tail, horn rim glasses in front of gray eyes. She’s clutching her purse and a cloak tightly, but there’s an unflappable calmness to her as she speaks.

“I work with the school district, but since the school years out I...supplement my income by finding things for people, it’s, my talent.” Both himself, Audrey, and James are writing as fast as they can. And Nathan’s pretty sure Duke’s laughing at them a little for it. “So I got a call this morning from Michael Moon saying that he’d lost his invisibility cloak last night and if I could find it for him.” She shrugs. “Magical items are usually harder to find than say keys or a pet, so I charge more. But he was willing to pay so I said yes.

“He sent me a picture and I started searching. I found it out on Close Avenue, out by the warehouses. And since part of my fee is retrieval I went to go get it.”

Her story gets interrupted by Stan who enters bearing coffees. “Thanks Stan,” Nathan’s thanks gets echoed as Stan hands out mugs.

“Not a problem,” he says with a smile. “Anyone need anything else?”

A round of head shaking and he leaves, the five of them turning their attention back to Nerissa.

She takes a hurried sip of her own coffee then makes a face when she probably scalds her tongue. Her hands shaking slightly she sets it on his desk before continuing. “I found it tucked behind some garbage, which I feel I should point out for the record is not the weirdest place I’ve ever found something. Anyway, I was picking it up and turning around to head back to my car when I heard a whistling sound behind me.

“I dropped to the ground and rolled away as quickly as I could. When I managed to get up I saw Mr. Corey’s...skin I guess.” She shudders, fingers tangling with the strap of her purse. “It looked angry and, well I definitely got the feeling it wanted to kill me. So I, ah, threw the invisibility cloak around me. Which thank God worked, although trying to move quietly was a pain in the ass.”

Untangling her fingers she reaches out for her coffee again, taking a much more tentative sip this time. “I probably should have run right away, but, well, as my parents would say sometimes I don’t have the best self-preservation instinct. So I moved from my spot since I didn’t want Corey to find me right away, but I...kind of managed to sneak up to him and, ah, slip my wallet into his coat pocket.” Nathan’s not sure he wants to know how a school teacher cum finder knew pickpocketing skills.

“After which I high tailed it out of there, he started chasing me when I got into my car, but the closer I got into the main part of town the further he fell behind, probably didn’t want to be seen. Then I came straight here. Maybe I should charge Michael more,” she says it with a wan smile that makes Duke snigger at least—well Nathan would laugh too, but it’d be unprofessional of him.

“Are you hurt?” Nathan finds himself biting back a smile at James’ question.

Nerissa shakes her head. “No, I mean I got some scratches from the gravel, but nothing more than that.”

Audrey chews on her pen cap for a second before asking. “So I take it you want to help us find your wallet?” There’s a wry smile on her face.

One which Nerissa echoes. “I mean that’s the idea. You do want to find him right?”

“I guess I don’t know how much you charge for finding things, but you‘d be a great addition to the Guard _and_ my work crews.” Dwight gives her an enterprising stare.

Part of Nathan wants to say this isn’t exactly the right time, on the other hand Dwight’s right, she could be very useful in helping Haven in the long run with her talents. An idea Nathan is very much all for.

She flushes. “Ah, thanks, I guess. Can I think about it?”

“Yes,” Audrey answers before Dwight can. “Think about it, let’s deal with our immediate problem first.”

A bit off to the side Duke’s been nursing his coffee, keeping to himself, at least until now. “I’m not sure how comfortable I am taking a civilian in with us. Even if she can help us find it.”

Nathan almost opens his mouth to argue that of _course_ it’s a good idea, bringing her with them means they can end this once and for all. But he keeps his mouth shut. Because Duke’s right, even if she does agree to it it’s not exactly right to drag her into this fight with them; part of their job is to protect and they can’t exactly do that while they’re focusing on fighting.

“I mean I could come and just point out the right building or something and then leave, I’m more than fine with that,” Nerissa suggests.

“Maybe even more than that you can help me too.” All eyes turn to Audrey at her strange statement.

He finds himself almost laughing when she takes a long drink of coffee before explaining herself. “Part of my thing is I can feel who’s part of Haven and who isn’t right? So it stands to reason that I should be able to go a step further than that and _find_ the person in question I want to find. I mean I wouldn’t have wanted to just try it blind the very first time, but if Nerissa wants to help me start figuring it out then maybe next time we won’t have to put innocent lives in danger.”

Nathan wonders if it’s possible to fall in love all over again, because that’s what it feels like is happening right now. It makes him wish he and Audrey were alone so he could just sweep her up and kiss the daylights out of her.

“I, I guess I could. I mean I don’t know if how our powers work is exactly conducive to the same searching style, but,” Nerissa shrugs. “Sure.”

“So,” Nathan speaks up. “Meet back here in twenty minutes?” If this is going to be the end they need to be properly prepared.

“I guess that means I’m heading to the hospital just in case,” James’ smile is wan and Audrey reaches out to squeeze his shoulder.

Dwight snorts. “And I guess that leaves me with assembling the cavalry, just in case.”

Which earns him a clap on the shoulder from Duke. “You, are a great man Dwight.”

Dwight snorts again and rolls his eyes.

“Twenty minutes,” Audrey repeats.

They scatter and Nathan feels anticipation sing in his veins, _soon_.

-

The warehouse district, if one can really call it that in a town as small as Haven—a few buildings, a few empty lots where buildings used to be, sidewalks and asphalt starting to sprout weeds—is empty of people at least.

A fact that relieves Duke, with no one but themselves there there’s at least no chance of collateral damage, at least of innocent life. Well, no chance once Nerissa leaves.

Next to him Audrey’s expression is one of pure concentration as she tries to sense out the Lilim. Nerissa next to her also searching, although occasionally murmuring suggestions to Audrey as they walk. And behind them he can just barely hear Nathan, watching their backs with sword drawn.

Duke’s unarmed, but then again in his shifted form holding a gun or sword is a bit awkward. They already know guns won’t do anything either, so he’s better off in this form right now. It allows him to keep better track of things too, and if Audrey and Nerissa senses anything he should be able to confirm it soon after.

Occasionally he gently bumps the two of them so they don’t trip or run into anything. The further in they go the more he can feel the tension ratchet up, at least between him and Nathan—Audrey is most definitely too focused. He keeps thinking they should be closer than they are, but Nerissa keeps leading them deeper. It almost makes him feel as if she’s leading them into a trap—and he finds himself regretting that thought the moment he thinks it.

Nerissa and Audrey both come to a sudden stop, and Duke has to keep Nathan from bumping into them, just in case it pulls them out of it or something.

“Can you sense it?” Nerissa asks.

Audrey frowns, her head moving slightly from side to side, her eyes closed tight. “I think so? But it’s...vague.” Opening her eyes she waves a hand to encompass the few blocks around them. “I know it’s _here_ , in this area, but nothing more concrete than that.”

“You’re a quick learner,” Nerissa gives a brief smile. “And it’s that one.” She points at a run down looking warehouse to the right of them. “Or at least that’s where my wallet is. Which I’d like back, if possible, but I’d understand if you can’t.” The joke falls a bit flat, but really Duke can’t blame her.

“One of you’s going to have to lure it out,” Audrey says as she turns to look at him and Nathan.

Since he can’t exactly talk Duke raises his hand, a perhaps absurd sight, but he probably is the best of the job. Certainly more agile than Nathan.

He bumps her side, this time in affection, before doing the same to Nathan. Then he slinks away, intent on his hunt.

Entering the warehouse his nose is instantly assaulted by an acrid smell, one that makes him instinctively recoil. He gains the high ground as quickly as he can. Ears twitching as he hears an occasional scuff of a shoe, or rasp of clothes against clothes. Of course the sounds echo, making them harder to pinpoint.

He travels across the catwalks—there are boxes here, but it’s clear that they’ve been long abandoned as long as the warehouse—gingerly, each step taken carefully so that he makes as little noise as possible. It means he travels achingly slow but it’s better than drawing attention to himself.

But his high ground means he spots the Lilim quickly, and while he’d found the thing disgusting in the caves, actually watching it just _be_ is somehow even more repulsive. Even with Corey’s appearance, and clothes, something about it just screams _wrong_. Especially when it moves, like a badly made puppet or something out of a horror movie. Either way Duke’ll be glad when this is all over and it’s dead.

Finding the nearest ladder down he reaches ground level and creeps closer. This is probably the most dangerous part, Nathan and Audrey know where he is, but they’ve got no idea if he’s just being through or if he’s really run afoul of the Lilim if it manages to get him before he can make any sort of sound.

And he’s got to be close enough to draw it’s attention before he can try to get it outside where they can face it on more equal footing.

His ears pick up muttering, and either the Lilim knows Angelic, or whatever language they speak is like Angelic, because his ears start to ache. But he can bear it for for now. Keeping his eyes trained to the ground means that he can’t watch the Lilim however and has to rely on his ears to keep track of where it might be.

Duke comes to a stop before reaching the outer perimeter of the clearing the Lilim’s got set up. _Now_ he looks around, pinpointing the Lilim and watching it for a few more seconds, waiting for it to reach the best spot for Duke to lunge and then run away.

Crouching further down he feels a burst of adrenaline course through him as he readies himself. A little more, just a little further…

When the Lilim’s lined up Duke lunges, claws flashing as he sideswipes the thing and hares for the door. An unearthly scream following behind him.

-

When they hear the scream—not Duke’s, it’s a relief to realize that—both Audrey and Nathan tense, turning towards where Duke entered and bracing themselves. Audrey’s glad Nerissa’s left already; she clearly wasn’t a fighter and at least she’d understood she’d only be getting in the way.

Almost as loud as gunshot Duke bursts through the side door, the clatter of his claws on the street nearly distracting. But soon enough the Lilim steps through the hole Duke made, and Audrey finds herself watching in horrified fascination as human skin closes over sickly grayness, black blood dripping from clothes and fingers; Duke must have injured it somehow. A heartening thought, yet the fact that it healed so easily is equally worrying.

Duke skids to a halt and before she can even say anything Nathan rushes forward, _Astyrwa_ swinging for a deadly strike.

The Lilim hisses and dodges out of the way, arm growing impossibly long to slap Nathan. Duke leaps in and makes the blow go wide.

Audrey hates this, hates it with a burning passion. The fact that she has to stay on the sidelines, all but biting her nails, while Duke and Nathan fight, it galls her. Haven is _hers_ , she should at least be able to fight for it on her own. But she is also Haven, and none of them are eager to find out what might happen if she gets seriously injured; she’d already been on the brink of death once and it hadn’t gone well for Haven, she knows most would prefer it not happen a second time.

Was this how Duke felt when she went to go face William on her own? On the other hand he’d had something to _do_ , while none of her usual bag of tricks will help, yet at least. There’s a desperate wish that she’ll be able to get a lucky shot in. But guns don’t work in this thing, and she’d probably do more harm than good swinging a sword around.

It makes her feel like her comment a month ago about Nathan and Duke being knights is true, they get to sweep in and save the day while she has to do the smart thing and think of her survival. It makes her stomach turn to think of for too long.

Nathan and Duke fight well together, Nathan wields _Astyrwa_ with deadly precision, while Duke harries the Lilim, distracting him so that Nathan can do the actual damage. If she weren’t terrified about them, and pissed off at her helplessness, she’d probably be in awe at watching them.

The Lilim’s body has changed too since the fight began, no longer pale human skin but iridescent black-gray skin that reminds her of insect casing. Claws skitter against that chitinous skin and she’s not the only one flinching from the sound. Still Nathan manages a swing and more of that black blood goes flying.

While it seems they’ve got it on the ropes, she’s not going to breath easy just yet; this thing is almost as old as Nathan is, if it doesn't have a few tricks up it’s sleeve then she’ll well, do something she’d probably rather not.

Her fear proves right, Duke dives in for another glancing blow and the Lilim’s own arm turns into a spike. One that punches straight through Duke.

“No!” The ground beneath all of them begins to tremble and shake in her grief.

James can save him, she forces herself to remember; they just need to get to him in time.

Time they might not have, not with Nathan keening and hunched over himself. The Lilim laughs and steps towards Nathan, hand-spike upraised to probably do the same.

But Audrey won’t let it. The ground shakes even more fiercely, but in a much narrower band, meaning the only one trying to find their footing is the Lilim. Yet it seems undaunted, intent on Nathan.

It doesn’t get the chance.

Nathan goes from hunched over to ramrod stiff in less than a second and Audrey feels her blood run cold. No, no, he can’t turn angel now. Not when it might kill him, even if it is only his wings and strength. She knows she can bring him back to himself, but what would the cost be this time?

Except, there are no wings of fire, no panes of blue for eyes, none of the other usual signs on him going angelic.

He bows forward again, and she can see his skin and clothes...tearing, dear God. She forces herself to remain where she is, one blow from the Lilim and she’ll be useless to anyone. And at least Nathan’s strange actions have the Lilim hesitating as well. Instead of pressing forward it pulls back a few steps, something like a shield appearing on its other arm.

Audrey for once is grateful that Nathan can’t feel, because it’s bad enough to watch, she can’t imagine what it would be like to actually experience whatever’s happening to him.

She expects to see muscles and tendons as his clothes and skin tear more and more, but...she doesn’t.

Nathan’s head throws back and he...roars, as, as wings burst from his back, taking the remnants of his clothes with them.

But these aren’t the wings she expects, the almost delicate tongues of flame she’s seen before from his angelic side. No, these are...bat like, with, with _scales_ on the bits of flesh between the membranes; they’re a pale copper color with streaks of equally pale green throughout.

Audrey doesn’t quite know how to process it, except to absently note that whatever’s happening to Nathan’s not done yet.

 _Astyrwa_ hits the sidewalk with a dull clatter as Nathan drops it, falling to the ground on his hands and knees. Like when William had altered him with aether Nathan’s body seems to be growing, but there’s no brightness this time, only more peeling skin as Nathan changes.

When her brain finally starts to catch up with what’s going on she doesn’t quite want to believe it. Sure she’d had the ability to turn herself from whatever Mara had been into a Lar, but well, that was because of who Mara’d been. How was it possible for Nathan to turn from his angel-trapped-in-human self into this?

Into a dragon.

Wings snap out, fully revealing a body with a coloration that matches the wings, and taloned hands and feet gouge the asphalt—she weathers the scratches that appear on her arm at the same time—as this new body orients itself. He roars again, this time the sound aching loud, one she’s sure _everyone_ in Haven’s heard, long neck and head whipping around to face the all but forgotten Lilim.

It stares at Nathan, jaw gaping and it would be funny if Audrey wasn’t worried about Nathan, and Duke—who, thank God, seems to be holding on for now.

In this...form Nathan’s eyes are a brighter, richer blue, like sapphires, instead of the blue-gray she’s come to know and love. But those eyes still seem to pin the Lilim in place for a few agonizing seconds.

Nathan’s head rears back and Audrey’s heart freezes in her chest as she wonders what the fuck he’s going to do.

His mouth opens, and she can hear his lungs working as he inhales deeply. There’s a second of perfect silence before Nathan exhales, it’s accompanied by another roar, but this one is lower. And there are also flames, shimmering green flames that pour from Nathan’s mouth, right at the Lilim. Even from here she can feel the blistering heat of them. She can see scorch marks appear on some of the nearby buildings and if Nathan knew about it he’d probably wouldn’t have done it in the first place—but she’s grateful he didn’t, she can stand a few burns if it means they win.

The Lilim doesn’t even have time to scream before the flames engulf it.

They cut out suddenly and Audrey does her best not to worry about it as she rushes to Duke’s side—Nathan, much as it hurts to admit, she can worry about later, he's still definitely alive after all.

Duke’s eyes are closed, but he’s still breathing, if barely.

And again, what can she do? Well, besides the obvious.

Her fingers smear blood on her phone as she dials 911, barely even hearing the operator’s voice before she rattles off their location and to hurry.

She puts her hands on Duke’s chest, wishing there was something she could do herself. But she doesn’t have healing powers like James, for all that he got them from her. There’s something laughably cruel about that. And it feels like she _should_ have those powers, if only for the residents of Haven, _her_ people.

The ground trembles slightly and she turns her head to see, well Nathan hovering. Despite everything it brings a smile to her face, at least she knows he’s still in there. But she quickly turns her attention back. “Duke, come on Duke.” She can tell his wound’s healed, by the tiniest amount, but he’s lost too much blood for that to be of much good.

The ground trembles again and soon she hears a soft rumble from Nathan.

At first she thinks it’s for the ambulance, but then, over his rumble, she hears hoofbeats.

Conli? War? One of the Horseman she hasn’t met yet? She finds herself hoping that it _is_ her mother, at the very least she might be swayed to help Duke.

The horse that comes around the corner however is not her mother’s white one, but one that’s sickly pale. It’s rider unlike any person Audrey’s ever seen before.

For one they’re wearing a t-shirt and jeans—of ‘regular’ colors—for another their appearance is unusual: their skin’s a patchwork of colors, every skin tone imaginable changing and shifting as she watches; their hair is...transparent, a faint nimbus of rainbows haloing it; their features and build speak of no gender or sex; and what might be most striking of all is their eyes, a pale burning green. _Come with me_ , those eyes whisper, _and I will show you truths you could never imagine_.

Death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe the term you're all looking for is 'oh shit!'.
> 
> Also shoutout to Tacodestroyingavenger, who guessed what was happening w/ Nathan all the way back in chapter 12! You have no idea how hard it was not to respond to your comment...


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem used in this chapter is "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Letting go of Duke she moves to stand over him. “You can’t have him.” Behind her Nathan rumbles in agreement. A tiny corner of her brain is pointing out how ridiculously absurd she’s being if she thinks she can stand up to _Death_ , even if they are her...parent.

Death doesn’t speak, just slides off their horse and approaches.

She takes a step towards them, holding back a grimace as she gets blood all over her when she crosses her arms. “I said, you can’t have him.” Audrey refuses to give Duke up, not while there’s still a chance.

“He will die,” Death doesn’t speak like she’d expected them to; their voice is whisper soft and almost monotone. “Better here than later, the hope will kill you all later.”

That might be, but Audrey has to believe he’ll make it. Uncrossing her arms she finds herself holding her hands out. “You know who I am right?” Conli never thought to tell them the truth, but maybe if she can convince them of it now it’ll be enough to save Duke.

Eerie green eyes bore into her. “Yes. Conli’s last child, she who has died and not-died. You were Mara and now you are Audrey.” Just faintly Audrey hears sirens and knows she has to hold on a little bit longer—although a part of her also realizes that Death is humoring her, if they wanted Duke there was nothing she could do to stop them. Maybe if she had been Mara, but not as Audrey.

“Can I tell you a story? About when Life and Death found happiness together?”

Like she expected the words make Death freeze, and if she thought their gaze intense before, well that’s nothing compared to now. “What gives you the right?” A hint of emotion, anger, creeps into Death’s voice. “How do you know of that aberration?”

Taking another breath Audrey steps closer. “Because my mother told it to me, the last time you were here.” That’s partly a guess since James had mentioned hoofbeats when she and William were close to dying.

“Yes, I always come personally when their children are passing.” A curious fact, but it’s not all that important right now—except for it being the reason she might have a chance.

“You and my mother were in love, you became human and you both lived together, happily. Until one Easter when she did what she shouldn’t have. She looked on your painting before you were ready to show it.” She can’t imagine how that would have cut, the pain that must have been shared by all of them. “Then she stole it and vanished.”

Like actual flames Death’s eyes flare, growing even paler for a second. “I am Death, and while I admire your attempt to save him Audrey, I will not be swayed by pain when I can feel none. Your reminder does nothing.”

“But that’s not the end of the story,” Audrey continues. She and Death are toe to toe now, and Audrey finds herself surprised to find they’re the same height.

Death raises a hand, as if to push her away. “My touch will not kill you, but it will hurt if you do not get out of my way.”

Audrey’s undaunted. “You must have wondered why she’d done it, why she left you when you were both so happy.” Death claims to feel no pain, but she highly doubts it, at the very least she’s feeling enough pain for the both of them.

“My twin did it for the same reason she does all things, to ensue her own survival against me.” Audrey can almost taste the bitterness in those words.

“That’s the easy explanation,” Audrey challenges; the sound of the sirens louder now. “Yes, in the long run running away helped her, but there was another reason. She was keeping a secret from you. An impossible thing.” She holds out her hands, almost, but not quite touching Death.

“You’re lying,” Death makes as if to step around her but Audrey follows.

“To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth,” Audrey quotes. “You might believe I have a reason to lie to you, but I’m not. Touch me and find out for yourself.” Death said their touch wouldn’t kill her, but she’s still taking a big risk here.

Death sighs, “fine. But if this is a trick not even your mother can save you.” Nathan rumbles in warning, but she doubts he’ll be enough to save her; although she does feel a warm burst of affection. It helps with the trepidation.

Death’s hands rise up and take her own, their skin is warmer than she thought it would be. Not that she has long to dwell on that, because between one second and the next she finds herself falling in an endless sea of pale green stars.

 _What is the secret?_ It’s Death’s voice, but gone is the monotone and the whisper, this voice is sweet and full of ache.

 _She was pregnant. Mara,_ I _, am your daughter._

The stars wink out, and the blackness howls.

-

In a dark room a spotlight shines down, illuminating a pedestal with an ancient chessboard balanced atop it. Perhaps most confusing is the fact that both sets of pieces are white, or at least appear to be.

A voice of no gender begins to recite.

“Are those her ribs through which the Sun

Did peer, as through a grate?

And is that Woman all her crew?

Is that a DEATH? and are there two?

Is DEATH that woman's mate?”

A thin white hand that is fire, is feathers, is the deep darkness of birth, rotten with sicknesses not yet brought to bear, reaches out and knocks over the paler of the kings.

It continues, more subdued.

“The naked hulk alongside came,

And the twain were casting dice;

'The game is done! I've won! I've won!'

Quoth she, and whistles thrice.”

A broken sound that is the scream of a black hole, the plaintive song of long dead beasts, the absence of even void fills the room as the spotlight dies.

-

Just as quickly as it arrived the blackness is gone and she’s once again on the street. There are EMTs swarming around her to get to Duke. Their voices are a controlled rush—even if some of them _have_ to be panicking over the _dragon_ watching them—as they work.

Death is gone.

“Will he be alright?” Audrey asks so quickly that her words blur together, thankfully the EMT she’d grabbed seems to understand her well enough.

“Crocker should be fine,” he soothes. “The bleeding’s stopped and it looks like he’s starting to heal. We’ll want to take him into surgery though, make sure he heals right.”

She barely hears that last part, relief roaring through her and making her stagger. Something warm and rough halts her fall, and when she has the sense of mind to look she sees one of Nathan’s...hands holding her up.

Duke’s on a gurney and hooked up to an IV, and she watches shakily as they start hauling him towards the ambulance. _He’ll be alright, Duke_ survived, _he’s_ alive.

Without warning she starts to cry, turning so that her face is pressed against warm scales, they scrape slightly, but she doesn’t care.

A soft pained sound leaves Nathan and she finds herself being moved. Soon, what she thinks might be his nose prods at her lightly, a question clear.

“I’m”—she hiccups—“I’m fine.” Warm air blows over her, and even if he’s a dragon she knows a snort of disbelief from Nathan when she hears one. “I really am,” she protests weakly. Turning again so that she’s pressed against his...muzzle? Face? Whatever. “I’m just,” she sniffles and wipes away her tears. “That was too close.”

The sound Nathan makes is definitely one of agreement, and she’s certain if he were human he’d be crying too. Despite her desire to just stay curled up like she is, she forces herself upright, resting her hands right above his nostrils. “We should figure out how to change you back, don’t think they’ll let you into the hospital like this.” It’s not a very good joke.

“Detective Parker?” The EMT sounds unhappy to interrupt, but she doubts he’d do it just because.

Turning away from Nathan, she looks down—good thing she’s not afraid of heights. “Yes?” Her voice is still raw sounding and she finds herself glancing at the ambulance still waiting.

“There’s ah, another person. Vitals aren’t strong, but they’re there.”

His words send a shock through the both of them. The Lilim still alive? That’s, that’s not what she wants to hear right now. She wants it _dead_ , this whole nightmare over with. But just because it’s not what she wants to hear doesn't mean she can just ignore it. “We’ll,” she heaves a heavy sigh. “We’ll deal with it,” if they can’t kill it then they clearly need to think of a way to lock it away; before it manages to heal itself.

For a second she thinks the EMT is going to argue with her, which is admirable, if wrong at the moment. But then he nods and jogs back to the ambulance, a moment later the siren starts up again as it rushes away.

So, Nathan or the Lilim first?

Despite her wanting Nathan back in human form she knows which she has to deal with first. And if Nathan could speak she knows he would agree. “Can you put me down?”

He does so without protest and she makes her way over to the Lilim, like the EMT’d said it’s still breathing, even if it does look more like a charcoal briquet than a human at the moment. And yet as if it feels her watching it’s eyes open, shocking more for the fact that they don’t look any different then they had before. She thinks it tries to speak, but all that comes out is a wheezing sound.

She crouches, as if it actually does anything more than give her a few extra seconds to think. Absently she’s grateful that all she smells is smoke and not burning flesh like she’d expected.

“We can’t send you to prison,” she’s thinking out loud more than anything else, but again she’s trying to give herself time to think of the actual answer. “None here on Earth could hold you and honestly I don’t know how they’d deal with this sort of thing in Hell, or Heaven for that matter.” And that was even if either of those places could hold a Lilim as well.

“But _I_ can apparently hold you.” On the other hand she might be able to keep it here in Haven, but she couldn’t stop it from killing people. Unless she could lock it away somewhere where it would never be disturbed.

The question then became where. There were a lot of places that could be considered ‘out of the way’ if the fact that the Lilim managed to stay hidden from them while _in_ Haven was anything to go by. But out of the way also didn’t necessarily mean _secure_. Which was certainly more important.

She’s certain if the Lilim could glare at her it would be.

Of course the two people who could best give her that information were currently unable to. Standing she turned her attention back to Nathan. “What do you think, should I talk to Vince and Dave or Dwight about where to lock him away?”


	21. Chapter 21

Audrey Parker enters the Haven Herald office like a storm.

Vince finds himself, not quite flabbergasted, but certainly caught off guard. From the way things had been going he’d thought she wouldn’t interact with him or Dave for as long as the both of them were still alive.

“You’re going to help me,” her eyes flash and the building rumbles slightly with her demand. He finds himself frowning slightly when he doesn’t see Nathan or Duke—not that he expects them to be attached to each other’s hips, except in a way he does.

Taking a deep breath, being on the defensive will do him no good here, and just because she asks it doesn’t mean he has to agree, for all that she’s Haven and would clearly be displeased. “With what exactly? We all heard the roaring.” In fact Dave had gone off to investigate it soon after the sound had rung out, and Vince knows the good having a secondary source can be.

The room around him groans slightly as her hands clench into fists—drawing his attention to the cannister in her left hand—and he thinks he sees the ceiling dip. “I’m going to lock that Lilim up where no one can find it and it can’t do any harm. _You’re_ going to help me find that place.” The fact that she’s come to him in the first place is telling enough; something’s happened to Duke and Nathan.

A terrifying thought. With no Barn, those two men are probably the only thing keeping Audrey from becoming anything like Genevieve, and with them currently out of the picture...well, Vince finds his odds of survival if he refuses shrinking—he’s never found himself particularly religious, but he finds himself praying that they survive whatever’s happened to them.

He stands, and despite the fact that he _knows_ he’s taller than her by far she somehow towers over him, her rage making her larger than she should be in his mind.

It’s a struggle, but he keeps his knees from knocking at least, because if this is _Audrey,_  who is only a Lar—if one far more powerful than usual—then he doesn’t want to know what _Mara_ would have been like. “Alright,” he doesn’t exactly have a choice he fears. “I’ve got a good idea where we can start.”

-

Nathan watches the Lilim intently, occasionally setting it aflame again when he thinks it’s starting to heal too quickly—insidious guilt worms its way through him at the thought that he still wasn’t powerful enough to kill the Lilim.

Strange that it’s so easy for him to do that, considering how this had caught _him_ by surprise.

Then again the way his muscles move as a quadruped is completely alien to him—not even factoring how long his damn neck is, or his tail—as is the strain from his back when he instinctively moves his wings.

The fact that he can feel, without help from Duke or Audrey is taking some getting used to. Granted _external_ sensation is still...not hazy but certainly not the rush he’s used to when he’s with Audrey or Duke. But it’s still sensation on his own.

And _wings_ , the thought of having them again, if in a different way, is staggering. It’s been so long since he’s flown that he’s not quite sure how to do it again—and even then flying as an angel would be completely different than flying in this form. Still that he can do it again is something he’s not going to pass up.

Well he might pass it up if he can’t transform back into a human.

He hopes that won’t be the case, that once he’s gotten the hang of it it will be as easy to change between forms as Duke’s own shift is.

 _Duke_ , Nathan resists the urge to go flying to the hospital to check up on him. The cop part of him pointing out how much chaos and destruction that might cause if he’s not careful. And considering he’ll have no idea what he’s doing, both things would be inevitable. As it stands Dwight, and the city of Haven, probably isn’t going to thank them for the amount of work they’re going to have to do to clean this up.

His wings fan out and resettle again, despite him trying to move as little as possible. But over the leathery sound he hears footsteps approaching. While his senses might not be as sharp as they’d been when he was an angel he finds them sharper than he’s grown used to.

Still he perks up slightly at the sound, hoping it’s Audrey returning to finish dealing with the Lilim and then help him.

Instead it’s Dave, camera around his neck; clearly looking for a story.

Carefully—the surface damage done so far hasn’t hurt Audrey, but Nathan knows if he accidently knocks over one of the buildings Audrey won’t thank him for it—he moves his head to get a better look at the man, giving a somewhat angry snort; he’s not exactly welcome here at the moment.

“Holy shit,” Dave stares at him in wide-eyed amazement. To be fair Nathan can’t remember the last time there was a dragon on Earth. Not that Nathan appreciates being stared at like a sideshow attraction.

As subtly as possible, which considering he’s at least a hundred feet long—thank heavens that some of the warehouses had already been demolished leaving him with bare patches to rest on—wasn’t very, he moved one of his arms to pin the Lilim in place.

Dave notices, and before Nathan could even think of saying no—not that it would have done any good—the camera comes up and Dave snaps a few pictures.

Lowering his head as close to the ground as he dares Nathan gives a warning rumble, hoping Dave at least gets a ‘back off’ vibe. Beyond that it’s not as if Nathan can do much, he doesn’t trust himself with his...talons, and even if he doesn’t exactly like Dave he doesn't want to charbroil the man either.

“Ah,” the camera drops from lifeless hands. “I...take it you don’t want me to do that.”

Nathan blows out plumes of smoke in agreement. He knows the Teagues will have to have _something_ to put in the Herald to tell people what happened, but Nathan doesn’t exactly want pictures of himself in this new form circulating; not right now at least.

Before Dave can try and ask him anything more at least more footsteps approach. And he finds himself giving a pleased rumble when he finally sees Audrey, Vince in tow.

“Where’s the Lilim Nathan?” She’s still all business as she marches towards him, the aether canister in hand.

Part of him—it’s strange to realize he’s still himself, just inside a much larger body—aches that she doesn’t at least have a smile for him; but then again the sooner things get done the sooner they can be with Duke in the hospital.

Carefully he raises his hand, showing her the Lilim, still scorched, underneath it. “Vince, Dave,” she hadn’t even looked Dave’s way and she knew he was there? But then she’d talked about before how she could generally sense the people of Haven before all this. “Pick that thing up and take it back to the Bronco.”

Without waiting for a response from either of them she came up to Nathan’s lowered head and rested a palm on his scales, he barely feels it, more he thinks because his whole body is so warm that her usual warmth gets lost. “You’re going to have to stay here,” she sounds apologetic at least. “But I should get his dealt with soon and then I can come back and help you.” Her smile is wan.

“Audrey?” Dave’s voice sounds strained. “Uh, he’s still alive.”

A huff of amusement leaves Audrey and she surprises him by darting in and kissing his nose. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He rumbles in response and bobs his head slightly as she turns away to follow Vince and Dave. As he hears the Bronco drive off he settles down as gently as possible. There are a myriad of feelings and thoughts racing through his mind; but the sun sinking into his skin feels nice.

 -

Audrey aches all over, mind and body equally strained from the whole ordeal of containing the Lilim. She finds herself praying that it works, she’d used up far more Aether than she’d like to do it, and she has to cross her fingers that what remains is enough for James and Jennifer to try and alter her lar bond.

Stepping onto the _Rouge_ Audrey has to fight the urge to turn around and go straight to the hospital, right now she knows she’d only be underfoot, and without Nathan there, well...it just wouldn’t be right. But she can at least try to help Nathan.

Rifling through the dresser she grabs some of Nathan’s clothes—just in case, he _had_ torn the one’s he’d been wearing when he changed—and then turns her attention to Duke’s jewelry box. Rooting through there feels strange—especially considering Wade had done the same thing only a few weeks before. Then again Duke trusts her, and would want to help in any way he could.

Almost as if it wants to be found, eerie considering Loki had said they weren’t sentient, she finds Niðeldr easily. Instead of putting it on right away, it’s not as if she needs to find her way _now_ , she slips it into her pocket before returning to the Bronco and heading back to Nathan.

When she gets there Dwight and a cleaning crew are already going over everything. And it’s hard to miss the way everyone keeps side-eying Nathan, who’s apparently fast asleep if she had to guess.

Biting back a fond smile she approaches Dwight. “Well at least you didn’t pull out the dragon hunting kit.”

“Naw, Leah,” a mind-reader if Audrey remembers correctly. “Said she got Nathan vibes from him, although you’re definitely going to tell me how the hell _that_ happened.”

“Later,” she agrees with a quirk of her lips. “But first I gotta get him back as a person, I mean I can’t exactly-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Dwight interrupts and Audrey bites back an hysterical laugh. “Just try not to make even more work for me,” he grouses, but there’s a smile on his face as well. “Uh, good luck I guess.”

She nods and heads towards Nathan, wondering how the hell she might wake him up—then again maybe she didn’t need to wake him at all. Pulling Niðeldr from her pocket she slips it on her right hand. It pulses around her finger, in counterpoint to her own heartbeat, and she feels a gentle tugging towards Nathan.

Right hand she touches Nathan. And instantly finds herself being pulled inwards.

Audrey opens her eyes to see herself in a field, except instead of being green or golden it’s all a pale gray, shimmering slightly as the wind rushes through it. Curious she reaches out to touch it, more surprised that it feels like, well grass, than metal or something else. But at least it means she doesn’t have to worry about injuring herself here. In the distance to the left she can see a city in silver rising over the horizon.

“Nathan?” She calls out, her voice being teased away by the wind. Her right hand pulses again and she feels the tugging-nudge, to the right, away from the city.

Following it she comes across a small wood, the trees reminding her of aspens, except they too are all shades of gray. With it being what Niðeldr is clearly urging her towards she enters, a chill in the air as she goes deeper.

The only flash of color in this place quickly catches her attention. “Nathan!” She rushes headlong towards him, uncaring of any danger there might be—if there is, well she can face it and win she knows.

Stopping in his wandering he turns to her, eyes widening in clear surprise when he sees her. “Audrey?” He catches her easily when she crashes into him, Niðeldr taking on a double beat now as they embrace. “How’d you get here?”

Something like a laugh leaves her. “Does it matter? I’m here to help you back. I mean you’re kind of cool as a dragon, but I like human-you even more.” A blush steals across his cheeks.

“It’s that simple? Just take me back and I’m human again?” He squeezes her tight.

“I hope so,” when she makes a move to leave his embrace he sets her down. “I mean I am, pun vaguely intended, winging it.”

Nathan gives a soft groan, but really it’s nothing compared to some of Duke’s puns; her heart aches and Niðeldr tugs again, leading her left. Linking her free hand with Nathan’s she follows the sensation. “You were surprised I was here?” they might as well make small talk of some sort while they travel, not that they _need_ to talk—except that it’s nice to hear his voice again.

“This is the realm of angels, I don’t think a human’s ever set foot in it.” It doesn’t exactly make her inspect their surroundings with a new eye, but it is interesting to know.

“Considering this is your mind I don’t think it counts.” They leave the aspen wood and find themselves standing next to a fiery lake—and at least bizarre geography isn’t unsettling after being in Conli’s house. “That’s…” Unnerving considering Niðeldr seems to want them to get closer.

“Beautiful?” Nathan lets go of her hand to walk closer, and even knowing this is all in his mind she’s worried he might hurt himself.

Rushing to catch up with him she answers. “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

Niðeldr keeps tugging and Audrey has the sinking, ha, feeling they’re supposed to go _into_ the lake. “Will it hurt us?”

Nathan turns to her, a serene smile on his face. “Weren’t you the one just saying this is my mind?” He takes her hands in his and pulls her closer to him and the lake. “If we are, then this is a part of me, and I’d never hurt you if I can help it.”

While a lovely sentiment Audrey isn’t exactly convinced, on the other hand what choice do they have? “Alright,” she wonders if Duke’d hate that he missed this or not.

Letting Nathan guide her they walked into the lake, and at least they didn’t immediately burst into flames. Which is definitely a win in Audrey’s book at the moment.

Nathan urges her deeper, an odd smile on his face as they head to the middle of the lake. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” Niðeldr is strangely silent now, apparently they’re both exactly where they need to be.

“I’ve got a good idea,” the bottom of the lake drops out and Audrey’s grateful she knows how to swim. When Nathan stops she bumps into him.

“Nathan?” she didn’t exactly expect them to swim across _all_ the lake—if they’d needed to cross it going around would have been just as quick she thinks—but the fact that they’re just stopping in the middle is...worrying, vaguely.

He tilts his head down to look at her. “You lead us here, but I think I’ve got to take us back. Do you trust me?”

Part of her wants to joke that that’s the most ridiculous question in the world, of _course_ she trusts him. But she bites that instinct back. “I trust you.” Nathan might sometimes be willing to go too far, but he cares about her, about Duke; given himself to the both of the freely. It’s hard _not_ to trust that.

“Close your eyes,” he murmurs it, as if this is some romantic tryst instead of a mental escapade. But she does so; even managing to keep herself from shouting in surprise when she feels him start to pull them under.

With her eyes close all she gets is vague sensation, but she’s certain they’re still sinking, still, still…

Audrey finds herself inhaling sharply, eyes opening to see herself back in Haven, a shivering Nathan— _human_ Nathan—on the ground in front of her.

Thankfully he seems to be conscious and she drops down next to him and shoves the clothes she’d brought into his chest. “Get dressed,” it comes out more of a sharp command that she’d like. “We need to get to the hospital.” They both need to know about Duke, and she finds she wants Nathan to get checked out too, just in case.

A weak laugh escapes him. And she’s grateful that the shivering seems to die down, she wonders if it was his body readjusting, the more he’s there. Reaching out she keeps a hand on his face so he can feel what he’s doing—she knows he doesn’t usually need it, but this feels like an exception. When he’s done she helps him hobble—which she’s sure is a sight to the cleaners around them—to the Bronco, where she unceremoniously pushes him towards the back seat. “I’m driving.” After what happened she doesn’t trust him to drive, not sure what lingering effects still might be going through him.

He doesn't answer and when she glances through the rear-view mirror she sees he’s sprawled out over the whole back bench, fast asleep. She that despite all her worry it brings a fond smile to her face.

-

Duke hates various types of beeping on principle, but this one seems hellbent on digging into his brain.

But just barely under it he can hear two sets of shallow breathing. The fact that both calm him tells him all he needs to know about who it is. Opening his eyes, an easier task than he thought it would be, he sees Nathan and Audrey sprawled together on the bed next to him, Audrey using Nathan like a body pillow.

At least it doesn’t hurt to smile, although when he tries to reach out to touch either of them his chest hurts like a motherfucker—one time he’d been unlucky enough to catch a cannonball in the chest, a lot like that, but worse. He grits his teeth against the pain and lets his arm flop back onto the bed.

Right now the fact that they’re both here and unharmed is enough for him. He might be in the hospital—and he seriously hopes this isn’t going to start being a _thing_ —but they’re here and unhurt; in his book that means things went well. He can get the story of how it all happened later.

Someone must have been monitoring his vitals remotely because about a minute later a nurse comes in, he’s only half surprised to recognize Monique’s partner Teri. “Hospital’s sparing me no expense I see,” fuck that hurt.

Teri arches and eyebrow and he’s unsurprised she marches over and hits the medication button. “I would advise against talking Mr. Crocker. You _did_ get stabbed in the chest. You’re mostly healed, but I’d take it easy for a week or two if I were you. I’m fairly certain Mo would like to keep her job.”

He mocks a glare at her, telling him not to talk and then nearly making him laugh. It earns him another eyebrow arch. “You’ll probably be discharged soon,” she checks his chart eyes moving quickly. “Bed rest and lots of iron rich food for you it looks like.” It’s probably a testament to how tired Audrey and Nathan are that they haven’t woken up yet; Nathan especially, considering he tends to be a light sleeper in strange places.

“I’d ask if you have any questions but again with no talking.” Her eyes follow his and her lips quirk. “Want me to wake them up for you? Although I’d advise against hugs.”

He finds himself torn, on the one hand he’d like to have them present, talking to him even if he can’t talk back, keeping him entertained for however long he’ll be here. On the other hand they probably feel as worn as he does—even if they’re unconscious—and sleep will do them a world of good.

A hazy memory of Nathan _roaring_ flutters through him and he frowns at it. He finally shakes his head at Teri’s question, no, he’ll let them sleep.

“Alright, Dr. Cooper’ll be by soon I’m sure to give you a more thorough rundown of what you’ll need to do. Do you want some water before I go?” He shakes his head, actually surprised that besides his aching chest he doesn’t feel all that bad—and the chest pain’s fading fast thanks to the meds—he’s not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

She gives him a faint smile before putting his chart back and heading out, leaving him alone.

He knows this pain free haze won’t last long, but it lasts long enough for him to drift back into sleep. The image of Nathan and Audrey following him in and fighting back the nightmares.

-

The next day they’re tangled up in each other on the _Rouge_ , the sounds and faint rocking of the boat almost as soothing to Duke as the sounds of Audrey and Nathan breathing around him. Absently he trails his fingers up and down Nathan’s back, counting the knobs of his spine as he goes. On this other side Audrey’s curled up, her hand resting over the scar he now has—he’s not sure if he wants it to be permanent or not.

Sex is sadly off the table, well sex involving _him_ at least, but that doesn’t stop him from enjoying the feel of their naked bodies pressed up against his; the centering feeling he gets from being surrounded so.

Audrey’s hand seems to pick up on his own’s restlessness and begins tracing abstract designs over his chest. “I’d forgotten how nice it feels not to worry about anything.”

Duke sighs in agreement, still not quite trusting himself to talk. His free arm sliding around her waist and pulling her closer. Maybe in a few minutes he’ll pull Audrey over him and onto Nathan; he might not be as much of a voyeur as Nathan is, on the other hand he does get a certain satisfaction in watching them and knowing he can have that too.

Nathan gives a brief rumble, a sensation Duke’s still getting used to, but he’s got to admit it’s growing on him, before opening his eyes...barely. “Still have one thing,” still possibly half asleep Nathan sounds almost indecent.

“What’s that?” Audrey doesn’t tense against him, but she’s clearly none too pleased with Nathan probably bursting their happy little bubble.

Rolling away from Nathan traps Duke’s hand between himself and the bed. “Wedding next week. Arla’ll probably be happy to be home and taking care of the final details herself.”

He doesn’t exactly mean to but a brief groat escapes him. “Shit,” his voice sounds even raspier than Nathan’s, and his chest aches slightly.

Audrey rubs his scar to soothe him as she echoes his groan. “Don’t remind me. I mean...no more talking Nathan,” she stops her massaging to reach over and pinch Nathan’s side. “We’ll worry about it later,” she declares.

Duke’s all to happy to agree.

Nathan however opens his mouth, but before he can say anything Audrey slides across Duke to kiss him. “I promise,” she murmurs. “We’ll talk about it later.” Duke licks his lips as he watches her straddle Nathan. “Right now you’re going to stay as quiet as possible…”

A grin crosses Duke’s face as Nathan bites his lip to keep from groaning.


	22. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we have it folks, the epilogue.

The wedding is a glorious, chaotic mess of being alive and celebration. Nathan’s sure his face is aching from all the smiling he’s doing, so it’s a good thing he can’t feel it.

But after everything, well, they’ve got a right to smile.

On the dance floor Duke is teaching Audrey, or at least trying to, how to tango—even if the music isn’t quite suited to it—and Nathan is more than happy to watch, sipping his beer and just not doing much of anything.

A hoard of kids, let by Lizzie, rush past, eager to get lost in the Crocker family garden now that the ceremony’s over with. He finds himself wishing them well, even if it might result in some annoyed parents later on.

Seconds later a harried looking Dwight, and Nathan can’t really hold back his laughter, chases after them; probably to keep Lizzie from convincing them to do anything truly dangerous. On the other hand he’s certain only one or two of the kids are human, some danger’d do them good. Either way it’s a relief to see everything going back to normal—normal for Haven at least.

Finding his beer empty he gives a small sigh and somehow hauls himself upright again, meandering over to the bar. Nora rolls her eyes at him for reasons he’s not sure of—and he’s half afraid if he asks why she’ll stop giving him beer—but hands him a fresh bottle. His wandering takes him past the table piled high with gifts as well as the one with food, which he does stop at to at least get some snacks.

He’s almost completed the full circle when the slight chill of the outside breeze comes into sharp focus, as does the hand wrapped around his free one.

Turning his head he sees Audrey, cheeks red from exertion, eyes sparkling bright, her hair starting to fall out of it’s styling a little. She’s smiling from ear to ear and he can’t help but give one back and say, “I love you.” It’s still amazing he can say it, he thinks he might never tire of doing so.

Her smile somehow widens. “I love you too Nathan.” She gives his hand a brief tug. “Come dance.”

"But my stuff…” It’s a half-hearted protest at best, yet he still raises his beer and plate of food in emphasis.

“Put it down somewhere and have it later,” Audrey says all logical-like. “Come on, Duke’s been thinking we could manage a waltz with three people and I want to try.” Well with incentive like that who’s he to resist?

- 

Duke throws himself into a chair with a groan, he can’t remember the last time he’d actually managed to tire himself out...well alright he can think of plenty of times pretty recently, but none of those had been dancing that’s for sure.

Then again the scar—he’s both perversely proud and annoyed about it—on his chest reminds him that things have changed with him. He’s lasting longer than the previous days, and he knows tomorrow he’ll be able to go a little longer still. But it’s a slow road; just like Nathan a few months ago.

His lips twist in a half smile as he snags Nathan’s beer and takes a swig. His eyes scan the dance floor and he sees Audrey and Nathan slow dancing, turning his smile warmer; the two of them are amazing really, even if the whole dragon thing is taking some getting used too.

On the other hand he’s always known Nathan to be kind of possessive—and occasionally cold-blooded—so really it’s not as hard an adjustment as they’d all feared. He still wishes he’d gotten to see what Nathan looked like though, Audrey’s description painting quite the picture.

As he takes another swig his stomach rumbles, reminding him that while he can’t get drunk food still might be a great idea.

Setting the beer down he pulls himself up slowly, not wanting a reason for Audrey and Nathan to rush to him; they’re being ridiculously hot right now and he doesn’t want to ruin it.

Walking at least is easier now, although he has to remember to take deep breaths to keep his chest from aching too badly.

Over at the catering table Carla and Nora are running the place like generals, and when Carla sees him approaching she meets him. “Come to check how things are going?” he can’t tell if she thinks that a good or bad thing.

“No, trust you both,” he’d probably be a horrible boss if he tried to manage them like that. “Getting food.” He demonstrates by picking up three plates.

Carla narrows her eyes and snatches the plates from him. “Oh no, you’re still on rest. Just tell me what you want.”

Part of him wants to fight, he can damn well do it himself. On the other hand it’d be nice to not have to manage carrying three full plates, and drinks, back to their table. “Fine,” Carla grins at his begrudging tone.

Five minutes later he’s back at the table and eating everything on his plate like his life depends on it.

“Duke,” Audrey sounds vaguely amused. “Slow down would you,” her hand rests on the back of his neck for a moment, thumb rubbing circles against his nape. “Making me worry here.” Her hand leaves and she takes a seat. He smiles when she slips out of her heels and rests her feet in his lap.

“Where’s Nathan?”

Audrey starts eating from her own plate. “Went to go corral the kids, James and Arla had an announcement they wanted to make, and they’re about to do the cake.”

He finds his gaze drifting to the bride and groom, the both of them looking blissfully happy as they stand next to the cake. It makes him happy too, that they’ve been able to weather their problems and found happiness; and they’re both clearly excited about the baby on the way.

“Well good thing I’m still ravenous.” He flashes Audrey a grin.

It gets him the laugh he wants, which turns into a happy sigh when he picks up one of her feet and begins to massage it.

He’s moved on to the other foot by the time Nathan finally comes in, surrounded by kids. His expression nearly matches the blissful one on Audrey’s face. Daniel’s on Nathan’s shoulders, talking excited about something and and Duke finds his chest aching in a good way.

The kids scatter from Nathan, although Daniel is apparently refusing to be budged, so they get get the both of them when Nathan joins them. Only for Daniel to all but fall of Nathan’s shoulders to climb onto Duke. “I see how it is,” Nathan’s grousing is good natured however.

Duke lets go of Audrey’s foot and wraps an arm around Daniel to help steady him. “Don’t be a buzzkill on the happy Nathan, come on,” but he can’t stop grinning.

“Uncle Duke, we found baby birds out in the garden!” Daniel blurts out, pretty much derailing any other conversation they might have.

“Did you now?” Audrey leans towards Nathan and rests her head on his arm. “Do you know what kind?”

Before Daniel can answer however the sound of a knife on crystal rings out, drawing everyone’s attention to Arla and James. The two of them share a warm look before Arla speaks, “we’ll get to the cake soon, we promise,” the answering cheer comes mainly from the kids. “But first we wanted to share something with you all. James thought it would be nice to give something back to you all.” Arla’s lips quirk, as a ripple of laughter passes through the adults.

“As some of you might know Arla’s pregnant,” even the three of them join in the call of ‘congratulations’ that rises up. “But we wanted to share with you all now that in about six months we’ll be having a wonderful baby girl.”

Another round of congratulations, while Duke and Nathan share equally shocked looks. Between them Audrey just looks pleased. “You knew?” It’s not quite an accusation.

“She let it slip during a girls night,” at least Audrey tries not to be smug about it; it doesn’t quite work. Then again smug is a wonderful look on Audrey so Duke’s not going to complain.

He has to give a soft laugh when Audrey nudges Nathan. “You alright there?” Nathan _does_ look a bit like he’s been smack in the face with a shovel.

“And we’d also like to share the name we’ve finally settled on,” James continues, seemingly oblivious to anything but Arla—granted it’s their wedding, he’s got the right.

They lace hands and move them to cover the slight bulge of Arla’s stomach. “We’d like you all to say hello to Alexandra Charlotte.”

A third cheer and it almost seems as if people are about to rush the two of them, but before it can even be more than an idea Stan—bless that man—calls out. “Now where’s our cake?”

Even Arla laughs at this outcry. “I guess we should give them what we really want.”

James looks like he might float as he pulls away from Arla and picks up the knife. A moment later he’s smashing a broken off piece in Arla’s face, she quickly retaliates and Duke half fears it’ll turn into a two person food fight, if not for Nora swooping in to help with cutting the actual slices.

“Can I get cake?” Daniel seems far more excited about the idea than Duke thinks warranted. Then again he’s ancient so what does he know? And anyways Duke sees a two fold opportunity.

“Sure, but you gotta bring some back for us alright?” He lets Daniel fall to the ground.

Daniel gives an enthusiastic nod and rushes away to join the crush of people waiting for cake. And now they’re alone, Duke’s certainly pleased with himself.

Audrey gives a warm laugh and Nathan just gives a shake of his head. “Pretty sure there’s something wrong with using your nephew like that.”

Duke mocks a pout. “Lighten up Nate, you want to go stand in line for twenty minutes to get cake? Or stay here with Audrey and me?” They can’t get up to anything _too_ illicit really, but then again this can just be foreplay for later. In that vein he ‘absently’ rubs his thumb against the curve of one of Audrey’s arches.

“I like the way you think Crocker,” Audrey gives a luxurious stretch, throwing an arm around Nathan’s shoulders. “Twenty minutes of this is exactly what I need,” she beams at Nathan, who seems unable to look away from them.

And he swallows hard when Duke’s thumb sweeps up Audrey’s foot to brush the underside of her calf. “Mmm, feel like you’re about to get risky there.” Duke watches as her other hand rubs across Nathan’s chest before flicking open a button and sliding through to trail across his chest. Nathan visibly touching as sensation filled him.

Despite her words Duke kept his thumb where it was, having no real urge to upstage James and Arla today of all days—and honestly if they were gonna have sex they could at least follow tradition and do it in the bathroom.

But the lazy petting is more than enough for Duke, promise of what’s to come later.

-

Audrey knows it’s inevitable, but it doesn’t mean she’s happy when their little bubble pops; Daniel finally returning with cake, and Jean in tow.

Duke’s certainly braver than she is, letting his niece and nephew climb all over him considering. Then again it’s pretty cute to watch also; she hadn’t realized Duke could _yip_ like that when Jean manages to give his hand a sharp bite—he’d apparently gotten too close to her own slice of cake.

But it _is_ nice to just hang out with them and learn more about them.

Still Audrey finds her gaze panning the ballroom, locking in on James and Arla, seated at their own table, heads leaning towards each other as they murmur.

Feeling like there’s no time like the present Audrey nudges Nathan and Duke. “Come on, let’s deliver our gift.” They’ve decided it’s best done in person and with an explanation, otherwise it might be taken the wrong way.

Duke ducks his head down slightly so he’s eye level with Jean and Daniel. “Can we trust you to watch our cake? You’d better not eat any.”

“Course not!” Jean bursts out, although Audrey’s not sure if it’s in response to Duke’s actual question or his mention of her or Daniel eating their cake.

“We’ve got our own,’ Daniel’s tone is patient, as if he doesn’t think Duke understands the concept. Which makes Audrey bite back a smile. It’s even cuter when Duke reaches out to ruffle his hair and he leans into the touch.

“Alright,” Duke gives a solemn nod as they stand. “I’m trusting you both.”

It’s a fifty-fifty chance that their cake’s gone when they get back, but then again there’s plenty to go around, so it’s not that big a deal.

Linking hands with Duke and Nathan they head towards the wedding party table—technically she and Nathan should be there already, but this wedding isn’t exactly a traditional one in that sense.

Arla and James pull apart as they approach. “Hey,” James beams at them. “What’s up?”

Nathan reaches into his suit pocket and pulls out an envelope. “We wanted to give you your wedding gift in person,” he hands them the envelope, a faint flush creeping across his cheeks. Audrey squeezes his hand.

James takes it, “You want us to open it now right?”

“Yeah,” Audrey says before Nathan can. “Just in case there are any questions.” She pinches Duke’s palm when he bites back a laugh.

She watches James and Arla share a look before James tears open the top of the envelope, pulling out the nice cream stationery that Nathan’d insisted they use.

It’s surprisingly anxious watching them scan the paper, until Arla pulls away in shock her eyes flying to them. “You’re not serious?”

Even James looks a little shocked. “A house?” The page falls from his hands and onto his lap.

“Yeah,” Audrey agrees. “It was really all Nathan’s idea, but we thought since you had big plans for your family you’d want someplace, well, bigger. But we didn’t want to pick out a house for you.” That seemed both rude and presumptive; especially with none of them known exactly what sorts of things the two of them were looking for in a house.

“I,” apparently they’ve now rendered James speechless.

Arla shakes her head. “We don’t want your charity,” at least she manages to keep it from being a sneer.

“It’s not charity,” Duke chimes in. “We wanted to give you something you both deserve. “ Especially considering how much of their lives they’d missed out on. “And it can be any house, even if it’s a ratty old fixer-upper that needs a million repairs. Whatever makes you happy.” They deserve to be happy, just like she is.

A quiet huff leaves Audrey as a thought occurs to her. “If it makes you feel better you can consider some of it make up for all the birthdays and Christmases Nathan and I missed with James.”

Which at least earns her a laugh from James, who turns slightly to Arla and rests his hand on top of her’s. “Does it really bother you that much Arla? Because if it does we can say no.”

Nathan gets an uncomfortable look, but she squeezes his hand again—this time in warning—before he can say anything. It’s their right to refuse if they really don’t want it. Even if it hurt _them_ to have it happen.

“I...I’ve just never received anything so big without someone expecting something…” Her free hand rises up to dash away what looks like tears. “I, I need to go.” Without another word she runs off. James shoots them an apologetic look before following after.

“Well,” Duke turns slightly. “That could have gone better.”

Audrey gives a soft sigh, knowing he’s trying to lighten the mood. Granted his glib comment doesn’t seem to be helping Nathan at all. She gives his hand a brief tug. “Come on Nathan, let’s go take a walk outside.” This isn’t the response any of them were probably expecting and some time to just be alone is something she’s sure they’d all appreciate.

He at least follows as they head out, his expression still sort of somewhere between shocked and hurt.

Outside the warm sun sinks into her skin, and everything smells of fresh cut grass and flowers. They can still hear the music inside, but it competes with the drone of bees as well as birdsong; and the music grows fainter—for her—the further into the garden they go. At least the grass is dry enough that her stockings won’t get damp.

Finding a nice big bench she sits down towards one side, tugging Nathan to be in the middle and grateful when Duke takes the other side. “Are you okay Nathan?” She didn’t think he’d take it this hard.

“Come on Nate,” Duke leans against him. “They didn’t exactly say no,” true, but still it felt enough like rejection to probably count.

Nathan leans his head back, closing his eyes as he soaks up sunlight; she wonders with him being a dragon now if he’ll have to sit outside to warm his blood up, or if dragons were more warm-blooded than that—he _did_ breath fire after all, that had to at least keep him somewhat warm.

“I’m, I’ll be fine, just caught off guard. Guess I didn’t think of a great gift,” self deprecation drips from his every word.

She bumps him hard with her shoulder. “None of that Wuornos, we had no idea how they’d react, and couldn’t have guessed. It’s not our fault, and we’re just going to have to respect whatever decision they make.”

“We are all adults here, and really it could have been worse if we hadn’t been there to explain it,” she’s not sure if Duke’s actually helping or not, but at least he cares.

A sigh leaves Nathan, “yeah,” but it almost sounds begrudging to Audrey’s ears. “But still…”

Audrey’s own sigh is slightly more exasperated. “Arla’s only been here seven months Nathan, we can’t exactly expect her to be as open and easygoing as James is.” Then again she might not ever be. True she’s better than she was when she came here, but from what Audrey’s been able to glean the life of a skinwalker isn’t usually easy. Arla’s used to expecting threats from all sides.

Nathan’s smile is wan when he turns to her. She doesn’t pull away when he ducks down for a kiss. “I love you,” his smile is at least more meaningful when he pulls away.

“You’d better,” Audrey teases. “Pretty sure Duke and I are the only ones who can put up with how ridiculous you really are.” Biting back a smile she pops up for another brief kiss before settling back down on the bench.

She feels Duke’s arm snake around Nathan’s waste. “Come here you,” she finds herself giggling slightly as Duke turn’s Nathan’s head so they can share a kiss of their own. “She’s right though, you are _far_ more ridiculous than advertised.”

A bush covers Nathan’s cheeks. “You’re just as bad, I mean you like _waffles_.”

They all break into laughter, and as it dies down Audrey feels better than before. “How about we make our excuses and head back to Nathan’s house, try out that new edible body paint.”

Duke’s eyes darken. “I like the way you think Parker.”

“I’d hate to interrupt,” Arla’s voice breaks in. “But I have...something I’d like to say.”

Audrey feels only marginally embarrassed, this isn’t the most compromising position they’ve ever been found in. She even manages a smile for Arla when she turns to the other woman. “We should probably apologize, we could have...prepared you better for our gift.”

Arla, who besides a faint redness under her eyes doesn’t look at all like she’s been crying, gives a tight smile. “Thank you, I appreciate that. Although I’m not quite sure how you could have done that better,” her smile turns a shade more real.

“But,” she continues. “James and I talked about it, and. We’ll accept the gift, so long as you only pay for half the house. You meant well, but we want it to be _our_ place, and not just a place that was given to us.”

Next to Audrey Nathan shifts a little. “That’s, we can do that.”

Audrey at least understands where Arla’s coming from. Always wanting to earn what you’d been given and not accepting handouts; and she appreciates that neither of them are letting her, Nathan, and Duke just steamroll them. That they’re standing up for doing it the way _they_ want to.

“And the rest of it?” Right, renovations and the like.

“How about we deal with that when we get to it? Right now I don’t want to be borrowing trouble if I can help it.” She gives a nod. “That’s all really. Although James would be sad if you left without saying goodbye.” Arla doesn’t wait for a response before turning around and walking back inside.

When she’s out of earshot Duke nudges Nathan, “see. Could have gone much worse.” Nathan’s dry snort in response says it all.

Leaning back against the warm bench Audrey gives a small sigh. “We’re going right?”

She feels Nathan lean back as well, once again his eyes closed as he turns his face up to the sun. “Yep. Definitely leaving...gimme a sec.”

“Right there with you,” out of the corner of her eye she sees Duke lay his head against Nathan’s shoulder. “Just,” he yawns. “Need a moment to gather my thoughts.”

Audrey finds herself mimicking Duke, the warm sun soaking into all of them and making her at least feel lazy and sleepy. “Yeah,” she agrees. “Just a moment.”

Childish screams jerk them out of their half-sleep, and all three of them look around in panic, tension running high. Audrey slumps visibly when she sees two kids—she recognizes Stan’s daughter Mary, but not the other girl—seemingly having the times of their lives screaming at each other.

In the ensuing seconds after that false alarm Duke actually manages to stand. “Come on, let’s make our excuses before we actually fall asleep. It’s making me feel old.” He offers hands to both of them.

Nathan snorts, but accepts the hand. “Says you.”

Audrey just gives a faint laugh as she lets Duke haul her upright. Hand in hand they make their way back to the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking this ride with me folks. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
> 
> Stay tuned though, next Monday I'll be posting the end of A Hush Sublime!


End file.
